So Now I'm Learning
by TSBlack
Summary: Slightly AU. A silly, badly written but enjoyable romp into the Firefly universe. Mal/OC, Kaylee/Simon, Wash/Zoe. Complete.
1. It's a Start

**So Now I'm Learning**

PART ONE: It's a Start

Disclaimer: I do not own Firefly, Joss Whedon does!

Malcolm Reynolds heard the door of Serenity opening and watched with a lifted eyebrow as Wash dragged in the body of a woman who might as well have been dead.

"And who is that?" he asked, watching with suppressed curiosity as the pilot examined her face, which was scratched, bruised, and extremely dirty.

"No idea," Wash replied. "I stumbled on her while I was out with the scanner looking for your little treasure,"

"It isn't a treasure," Mal growled. "It's important. Why did you bring her in here? She looks dead,"

"She's not. When I found her she was conscious, and she asked me to help her. Then she passed out. I think it's heat exhaustion or something,"

"Mm hmm. Let's take her to the infirmary, let Simon have a look at her," he said. When they got her on a bed, Mal looked at her. She was a well-built woman, sure enough. Tall, with long legs, a strong chin and collarbone. Her hair was dark and fairly short- about half an inch below her jaw. Her skin was alabaster pale- where it wasn't burnt from the sun. She was clothed in a tank top and an extremely baggy pair of men's trousers that were tucked into leather work boots. She had a standard issue pistol tucked into one pocket. Simon drew it out carefully.

"She won't be needing this," he said, and began examining the burns on her shoulders and arms.

"These are pretty severe. She'll live, sure enough. Give me a couple of hours to patch her up and she'll be fine," Mal look a little perturbed. "What if we need to leave before a couple of hours?" Simon shrugged. "Who knows how long she'll be unconscious, anyway," he offered. Mal and Wash went back to the cockpit.

"If that girl turns out to be a pain in the ass, Wash…"

"I don't think it'll be a big deal, Captain,"

* * *

"Uhn," moaned Analith as the world slowly took shape before her eyes. The world wasn't exactly as she remembered it… 

There was a face hanging over her. "How do you feel?" it asked. "Hungry…" she managed to say through her parched lips. The face gave a laugh. "Alright then…" She moved her hand to massage her forehead and saw that it was plastered with bandages.

"What…"

"You were rather badly burned," The face was over at the other side of the room, fixing a cup of chamomile tea. She could smell it. She could also smell chocolate…

There was another face. Only she liked this one better. Much better.

"Simon, how's the invalid?" it asked- she like the voice better too. "Just woke up, Mal," the first face replied. Mal and Simon…

"And she's hungry, which is a good sign," Simon was bringing the tea and chocolate bar over.

"Here. You need some caffeine," Ha handed it to her, and she drank the tea and ate a huge chunk of chocolate that tasted like it was at least half protein.

"What's your name?" asked Mal.

"Analith," she replied, sipping the tea again.

"Why were you on that planet?"

"Got left there,"

"By who?"

"Luke,"

"Uh huh. Why?"

"He wasn't happy with my work. Dumped me on the nearest planet and went. About died out there,"

"Wasn't happy with your work? What work?"

"Didn't steal enough for him, the greedy little prick," She finished the tea and chocolate. Her brown eyes danced over Mal. Hmm, she thought. Nice pants…

"Steal?"

"I'm a pirate. Er, was a pirate," Mal looked at Simon. "Jesus. Another fugitive on our hands,"

"Not really. I'm too good at it. They never caught me, not once,"

"Yeah. Well, I guess you're officially on board Serenity now," Mal turned to leave, Simon took the teacup away.

"Doesn't like me," Analith said to herself. Simon returned with more bandages and some ointment stuff. "I think he does like you, that's why he let you stay so easy, with so little information," He began to replace the bandages, smearing on the ointment.

"That smells terrible," Analith said.


	2. Oops

**So Now I'm Learning**

PART TWO: Oops…

Disclaimer: I do not own Firefly, Joss Whedon does!

"Wash, how close are we to Haven?"

"Not that far, Captain, that little spec right there should be it in a few minutes," Mal grabbed the microphone.

"This is your captain speaking, we're approaching Haven, and I want everyone looking spiffy and prepared to unload in fifteen minutes tops. Minimal weapons, please," he added as and afterthought. No good to him if his clients thought they were being ambushed when they simply wanted a deal.

"Who's the new kid?" Zoë asked as she entered the cockpit. "Wash found her half dead on, er… whatever that last planet was,"

"Dust Planet," Wash said shortly.

"Yeah. Whatever," Mal retired to his room to wash his face.

* * *

Analith was digging the dirt out from under her nails, and River watched with unblinking eyes.

"What are you here for, then?" River just stared.

"Did they find you starvin' to death on a desert planet too, or what?"

"My brother brought me on,"

"Who's your brother?"

"Simon,"

"Oh. Is there a sink around here?" River's gaze shifted, and settled on the sink on the wall nearby. "Oh," Analith said again, and stood, and then nearly fell back on the bed again.

"Your foot," said River, looking at it.

"Yeah. It's tender…" Analith gingerly limped over to the sink and washed her hands and face. River watched her for a moment, but then she was gone. Ana looked around the infirmary, then limped out into the hallway-like area outside. She could hear voices coming from the engine room and the cockpit. The kitchen was empty. She was also picking up sounds from what she didn't know to be Mal and Kaylee's rooms. She went over to a door in the wall, opened it, and crept with absolute silence inside.

There was a bed, a screen, everything one needed to get on inside, and someone was in another part of the room, and a faucet was running. She picked up a pair of pajama pants off the bed, and looked at them thoughtfully. The water stopped.

"Jesus!" Mal said when he walked outside the bathroom cranny of his room, putting his face to his hands. Ana stood there, holding the pajama pants.

"Sorry. This your room?"

"Yeah, and those are my pants,"

"Sorry,"

"That's… fine…" He took the pants and held them almost defensively.

"I don't get a room?"

"There isn't another one,"

"Huh…"

"We'll work something out. Don't you have any clothes other than that?"

"I don't have anything other than this and my gun, and where it that, speak of?"

"Oh, Simon's keeping it. You might need it if you're going out with us,"

"Haven?"

"Yeah," Her look was distant, and then she snapped back to reality.

"I'll find Simon, then. Where's he at?" Mal's smirk was knowing, and Ana knew something or another was afoot- whether important or not, it was afoot.

"Ten bucks says the engine room,"

"Uh huh…" Analith didn't hear Mal laughing as she exited and went into the engine room, where she found Simon on top of another girl.

"Whoa!" The two of them scrambled to their feet, thankfully still clothed. "Sorry," said Simon and the other one simultaneously.

"My fault… or maybe the Captain's fault… he's the one who sent me over here to find you, Simon…"

"Don't worry about it. This is Kaylee," he said casually. She smiled, her cheeks lobster pink, and said, "Hi,"

"Simon, I need my gun,"

"Oh, yeah, here, it's in my room… follow me,"

"Wait!" Kaylee called. "You didn't tell me her name!" But they were gone.

* * *

The bar was dimly lit, and the screen behind it was flashing many brilliant neon colors, the Chinese music blaring out of it. The people were all dusty and half hidden in shadows, like they were all here on some terribly illegal assignment, which they probably were. Analith followed Simon, her closest friend as yet, and River walked beside her, and they were followed by Zoë, Wash, Jayne (who was examining Analith's back end) and Kaylee. All of them were following Mal.

"Alright, Zoë and Wash, I want you two to come with me. The rest of you… have a drink," he said, and they made their way to a table where a rather scruffy-looking man was seated along with a woman dressed in black. Analith followed Simon and River to the bar, where neither had a drink and Kaylee bought a beer. Ana eyed the suspicious people around her, scanning for any familiar faces. At first, there were none.

"Don't you want a drink?" Kaylee asked.

"Don't have any money," she replied, still looking around.

"Oh. What was your name again? You never said,"

"Analith,"

"Analith? Can I call you Ana?"

"Please do,"

"Alright!" She went happily back to her beer, but Ana was having suspicions about this bar. Something wasn't right…

Suddenly, she saw him. Luke, of all people to run into, was sitting at a table in a dark corner of the room, with two women at his sides. "Oh, no," she murmured under her breath.

"What?" asked Simon.

"An old friend of mine is in here,"

"That's bad?"

"For me, yes. For you, probably not as much. But then, he always was a real asshole…"

"Who?" But Luke wasn't there anymore. Ana's head spun wildly around, her eyes searching.

"He's gone!"

"No, I'm not, love," He was at the other end of the bar, a rough but handsome British man in roguish, rather pirate-esque garb. The two women who were with him had vanished. Ana's pistol was out in a flash, but his was already in his hand.

"No, no, no, m' dear, no guns, please. I want to resolve this like civilized people,"

"But you're not a civilized person, Lukey boy," His mouth curled up like a snarling animal's.

"Do NOT call me that! You ai ya traitor, I should've found a more isolated rock to drop you on!"

"Oh, come off it, Lukey boy. You know that I would die of starvin' rather than shoot myself. You gave me a weapon, too, which wasn't too bright of ya," Luke looked the slightest bit rattled by this.

"It doesn't matter. You versus me and my two lovely body guards isn't exactly in your favor, love,"

"Hwooh dahn, stop callin' me love!" Her pistol was up and shot was fired in a second flat, and one of the two body guards who had been hidden in the corner behind him fell to the floor, deader than a doornail. The two of them were in a dual stance almost before Mal reacted to the sound.


	3. They Are Family

**So Now I'm Learning**

PART THREE: They Are Family

Disclaimer: I do not own Firefly, Joss Whedon does!

"That was indeed foolish," Luke was debating on firing the first shot, before Analith could prepare.

"Yeah, I'm the personification of complete idiocy, Luke," Ah sarcasm, thought Luke. Her specialty. But before he could retort, Mal was practically on top of him.

"Now, now, sir, can't be havin' people pointin' guns at my passengers. So what's the problem?"

"You'd better keep yer nose clean, Captain, or he may think it his duty to remove it from yer face," Ana said.

"He'd best not take the consideration into his head," Mal was giving Luke such a look, Ana could see the fear in his eyes.

"Oh, and I believe that on the way here I told you I'm Mal to you, right Ana?"

"Sure,"

"Okay, now that that's cleared up, sir I'm going to have to ask you to get your carcass out of here,"

"Somehow," Luke was feigning annoyance- now that the rest of the crew had made something of a semicircle around Ana, his eyes dripped with fear. "I don't find myself particularly obliged to do anything you ask," Ana's eyes flickered to Luke's hand- he'd made the mistake of lowering his gun. She was getting annoyed with the whole ordeal.

"Oh, gun-hoe-tze-bee-dio-se," Her gun was fast as a flick, and Luke and his other bodyguard fell dead on the floor. The bartender's face was somewhat deformed by his expression. "Sorry about the mess," Ana said to him, and walked outside. Mal was at her heels.

"Is this kind of thing going to happen a lot if I have you in tow all the time?"

"Oh, 's bound to happen some. Made 'nough enemies, I suppose. But not a lot, I wouldn't say,"

"You had better be right, because if you jeopardize my crew too much I might have to get you off of my boat,"

"Don't like me, do you?"

"Never said that,"

"I can look at yer face and tell what you're thinking, you don't have to say a thing,"

"Point taken,"

"You didn't answer. Do you not like me?" Mal's eyes danced to the left, his mouth curled around, choosing its words.

"Haven't decided yet," He went back into the bar, and Ana smiled like a mischievous child.

* * *

Ana was sitting in the kitchen, just looking at it in slight awe, when Jayne came in, likely for a drink.

"Oh, hey, erm, what was your name?"

"Analith,"

"Uh huh. Want a drink?" Somehow she'd known.

"No thanks,"

"Sure?"

"I'm fine, thanks,"

"Alright, then," He drank from the whiskey flask, looking at Ana with a desire to say something disgustingly impressive.

"You know what kind of ship she is?"

"Firefly class. It's little beauty, I think,"

"Damn bucket of bolts,"

"Really?"

"You haven't been on her and conscious long enough to see bits of her falling off behind you into the Black," Her smile was irony itself.

"Huh. What are you on this boat 'zactly?"

"Oh, mostly I just shoot people if I need to,"

"Would like to have a job like that, rather than just being a passenger,"

"What, you wanna join the crew?"

"Got nothin' else to do, no place else to go,"

"Should ask Mal,"

"Was considering that," The speaker system blipped.

"This is your captain, Jayne- please get your ass in the cockpit, as in right now,"

"Ah, ai ya," And he was gone. Almost as soon as he was, River meandered in.

"Hello,"

"Hey, kiddo,"

"You want to join the Captain's crew,"

"Yeah, I was thinking about askin',"

"You should. They are family," Ana smiled at her. "So what's your story?"

* * *

It was officially the closest thing to bedtime on Serenity, on Ana's third day aboard. Jayne, Zoë, and River were already in their respective areas, Wash was setting the autopilot, Kaylee was putting away her tools, and Simon was re-bandaging Ana's blistered skin.

"I'm really sick of this room,"

"It has beds,"

"Sleepin' on the floor would be preferable,"

"What's so awful about it?"

"It smells bad,"

"Dang-ran," He put up the ointment and the gauze. "Maybe I'll find the Captain and you two can sort something out,"

"Thanks, Simon,"

"Yeah," He left, and Ana could hear him asking Wash where the captain was.

"In his room, I think,"

"Thanks," The footsteps faded. Ana really liked Simon; he was a nice guy, and smart. Not too harsh on the eyes, but she didn't like him in that particular sense. And even if she had, he was taken. Or as close to taken as you could be without actually being officially 'taken'.

"Getting picky on me?" Mal was in the infirmary, his eyebrows raised.

"What?"

"Simon says you want a place of your own to sleep,"

"Simon says,"

"Well, there isn't really anywhere to go, except…" his voice trailed off, his eyes lost a touch of radiance.

"Where?"

"Inara's old room," His voice was cold.

"Ya don't want me to go there, do you?" Ana asked, not knowing the story but judging clearly from his expression that it was a long one. Mal was silent. "What happened?"

"It's a long story-"

"Summarize,"

"Alright," He looked at the ceiling. "Uh… Inara was an old friend. A, um, really, really good friend," Ana's eyes met his.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I'll go someplace else,"

"No, it's alright. You can have her room," He said, and turned to leave.

"Mal,"

"Yes?"

"Can I… I was wondering…" It wasn't the right time. And God, those pants were distracting.

"Can you what?" Well, right time or not, she couldn't get away from it now.

"I wanted to ask you if I could… well… join the crew?" Her last words were small. His eyes had another look altogether- but this look certainly wasn't bad.

"I'll think on it,"


	4. Pictures

**So Now I'm Learning**

PART FOUR: Pictures

The planet was a dusty one, but that didn't stop a deflector shield from flying off the front end when they descended towards Shadow's surface.

"What is wrong with those gorram shield plates?!" Jayne shouted while they made a rocky landing.

"I'll need to get a replacement soon, Mal," said Kaylee as they got off the ship and breathed the dry, hot air that clung to their throats.

"Not here, you won't. We'll stop by someplace when we leave, but right now I have business with the old woman,"

"Is this going to get violent?" Simon asked. "Wasn't planning on it," the captain replied, holstering his gun in sharp contrast to his words.

"Should I stay here then?" Analith asked her hands on her hips. "Maybe you'd better stay this time, huh?" He took Zoë, Wash, and Jayne with him.

"That would be the adventure crew," Simon said, rolling his eyes somewhat. Analith watched the four of them slowly fade into the landscape, what little there was to be had of it. Mal's tall figure and broad shoulders was between Wash's slightly shorter one and Zoë's sturdy yet almost gaunt frame. Jayne was obscured by the guns strapped to his back.

"They'll be alright. Just wait, by sundown they'll be back and we'll be outta here," Kaylee said. The others went inside, but Ana still stood, watching the figure of the captain.

* * *

"Jesus! Do you have some kind of thing about my room or what?" Mal had entered his bedroom to find Ana sitting on his bed surrounded by crumpled bits of paper and doodling on a stack of more paper.

"No. I just like your room. It's not girly like Kaylee's, neat like Simon's, or ferociously guarded like Zoë's, Wash's, and Jayne's,"

"Right. Where did the paper come from?"

"Found it," Her reply was somewhat hasty.

"You did, did you…" He tried to look at the picture she was drawing, but it was clutched tightly to her chest.

"Come on, lemme see it,"

"No!"

"Please?"

"No!"

"Come on, I wanna see it!"

"Mal! Stop it!"

"Alright, alright. I'll stop. But can I please see it?"

"No, Mal,"

"Ugh, kwin-gwe-je deh," He put his long coat on his bed. Ana looked at him with blank innocence. "You might wanna go now,"

"Why?"

"Because I'm back, I need my room," he said, and Ana gathered the crumpled sheets of paper and took them back to her new quarters, where she burned them.

Mal changed into his pajama pants, washed the dust off his face and put his new sack of money under a pile of clothes which were under his bed. He didn't go to bed, however. He stayed up to file the video recordings of Inara that Kaylee had made into a box. Then he put them under his bed, and locked them.

"It was the past. I can forget now…" he mumbled to himself, looking at the screen and hoping someone would call and want to talk. But no one did, and he was left with his loneliness. He looked under his bed again at the sack of money he had collected today for his work, and suddenly his eye caught something that shouldn't have been there. It was a crumpled wad of paper.

He drew it out, and looked around to make sure no one would see him looking at it, even thought there was no one in the room. Then he began to open it, to unfold it, to smooth it out with his hands. His face dropped when he saw what it was, even though there was a huge X over it, as if the artist had been highly unsatisfied. It was amazingly realistic; it was shaded like a photograph.

Ana had been drawing pictures of him.

* * *

"Your skin is pretty much healed. This scar on your back, however, will not be fading anytime soon," Simon said as he pulled the gauze off of Analith's back.

"That's fine with me. I've plenty of scars,"

"You do have a lot of them, don't you,"

"What being a pirate does to a body,"

"I see," He was throwing away the bandages, and River was sitting on an infirmary bed behind, watching.

"Scars are memories, like the water droplets that shine in your eyes," she said, examining Ana's back carefully.

"Yes, River," said Simon, smiling. River continued as if he'd never spoken.

"The scars are thoughts too. This one says you're hungry," She smiled, rather manically. Simon raised an eyebrow.

"She's right, ya know," Ana said, and went to the kitchen to find some food. Kaylee was sitting at the table, drinking some tea.

"How's your back?" she asked.

"Healed, Simon says,"

"Simon's a really good doctor,"

"I'm proof of that I guess,"

"Yeah,"

"Scarred pretty badly, though,"

"'S alright. Everyone here has scars. That's what life in the Black does to you," She sipped the tea. "Especially Mal. He's been at it longer than any of us," Ana had found a large chunk of cheese and was cutting off a piece.

"I wanna know something, Kaylee,"

"Sure,"

"Who was Inara?" Kaylee looked a little confused.

"Why?"

"Mal gave me her room, but he didn't look to happy about it at first," Her eyes were now a little sad and little surprised.

"Wow, he did? I always thought he'd leave that room like it was when she left,"

"Who was she, Kaylee?"

"Well, it's kinda hard to say it now. And don't go telling Captain Mal I told you this if he didn't even tell you himself,"

"Fine,"

"Well," She looked a little uncomfortable. "They were… you know… sleeping together," Ana's face was stone, but something inside her had just lurched wildly. And she felt somewhat guilty.

"I should probably find another place to sleep. I didn't know the full scale of it before…"

"Oh no, now, if the Cap'n wanted you there, or at least didn't mind you there, you should stay. But really I'm surprised he let anyone in. He always said that he was done with that sort of thing…" Something made a loud noise in the engine room.

"Ai ya," She threw her cup into the sink and headed for the sound. Ana watched her go, wondering how she would sleep knowing that the Captain had made love with a lady in that same room. She would have to manage.


	5. My Heart's Little Ditty

**So Now I'm Learning**

PART FIVE: My Heart's Little Ditty

Zoë and Wash were beginning to get rather over playful before they heard the music.

Wash was on top of Zoë, who was on top of the kitchen table. He had just begun to unbutton her shirt when the silence that came with the absence of their dirty talk for a moment hadn't been so silent.

"What is that?" Zoë looked around, trying to pinpoint a source for the muffled but nonetheless beautiful melody they were hearing. Wash stopped too, and they lay on top of one another, listening.

"Isn't that coming from Inara's old room?" As soon as their arousal was distracted it was forgotten, and Zoë buttoned up her shirt and followed her husband towards the newcomer's room. They walked lightly, trying not to make much noise. As they neared the room it got louder.

It was a guitar. A perhaps old-fashioned Earth instrument, but the melody plucked from it was a beautiful one. Then, suddenly, it broke into chords- and a moment later a throaty, slightly raspy, and beautiful voice gave the melody that had been playing before shape.

"And when I rest, O love of mine  
I'll watch your dreams within mine  
I'll know everything you know and love you  
But when you close your eyes and think  
Of every ship that wouldn't sink  
You'll know everything and I hope you love me  
And if the gentle starlight won't remind you  
If they are no longer there to guide you  
Look for my face in the blackest night  
And when you find it, then you'll have your love-light,"

The chords strummed, the voice was a fraction louder. Zoë looked down the hall and saw Simon creeping slowly towards them, his face frozen for straining his ears.

"Those were the merry fields  
Where all the children would congeal  
And I was always the last one to get there  
But then you would understand  
(I would imagine you taking my hand)  
And we'd run with the others but not see them  
So if you loose my fingers in the dark  
Your tears go cold and your body stark  
You must look for my face during the fight  
And when you find it, then you'll have your love-light,"

Now the guitar picked out the melody again, softer and more run together than before. Kaylee and Jayne were now in the group of listeners, and River was creeping with her usual amount of total silence down the hall, looking rather confused but still delighted. The voice was a little lower, a little softer, and almost angelic.

"But nothing I've found's been perfect in life  
For every ecstasy there is always strife  
These things are easy to forget around you  
You pulled me out of my hollow place  
You brought the sunlight onto my face  
You danced and knew joy and I envied you  
When you taught me how to sing  
It was your eyes, not by listening  
Took my small heart to a great height  
And when you found me, then you were my love-light  
You surround me and you are my love, my life  
When I look into your eyes I see your love-light,"

The last chords of the guitar faded, and an insanely human sound came from the room- a cough. Wash had the most mischievous look on his face. Zoë eyed him.

"Honey?" she whispered.

"Mm hm?"

"What're you thinking?"

"Oh, nothin',"

"Come on babe. Fess up,"

"Just… that we should definitely make her sing for Mal," Zoë's eyebrows shot heavenwards.

"That's actually not such a bad idea-"

The door creaked open very quickly then, and Ana's large grey eyes looked rather innocently out at them.

"What's going on? Why's ever' one out here?" They all raised their eyebrows, very nearly at the same time. Her gaze danced from one face to another and back again.

"Heard me. Didn't you?" She said it like it might have been a question or a statement.

"Ai ya…" Zoë caught the door before she could shut it.

"Oh no, missy. You ain't off the hook that easy,"

* * *

"What is going on?" Mal asked, sitting at the kitchen table, dressed in the closest thing to Sunday best as he had, being served hot tea and a bowl of something that might've been soup or might've been something rather less pleasant.

"We just decided that maybe our good captain deserved somethin' for… bein' such a good captain an' all," Kaylee (who was dressed in waitress drag) said rather lamely.

"So I get a free meal?" he asked- and it sounded as if that wasn't such a good thing.

"And an evening of entertainment," she added, sounding more particularly pleased with that bit. "Enjoy, Captain," she said and left. There was a curtain drawn over one end of the kitchen, a red curtain like you expect to see at a performance stage or a really good restaurant. Mal tucked his napkin into his collar and eyed the soup suspiciously, sipping his tea for good measure. Then, the lights dimmed, and a couple of rigged safely lights shone at the stage.

"And now, Mal, your personal performance," said Wash's voice over the intercom.

"Wu de tyen ah," Mal mumbled. The curtain drew back, and he was more than a little surprised to see Ana sitting meekly on the edge of a stool, a battered guitar in her hand and dressed in Kaylee's sequined shirt and a pair of Zoë's pants. Her hair was brushed and her face was very clean- almost too clean. Mal raised an eyebrow.

"Good evening, ladies and gents, and I guess this is what they call entertainment these days, ha," she said, rather like she didn't want to be there. There was a loud screeching noise from the speakers.

"Alright, Wash, geez," she said, adjusting her earpiece. "I wrote this one a few years ago, and they wanted me to sing it, so here I go," She twanged some on her guitar, tuning it delicately. Then she proceeded to play the song that the rest of the ship had listened to the night before.

* * *

The last chords reverberated across the room, along with the last strains of her voice. Mal was just staring at her in an odd way, his soup was stone cold.

"You can do ever'thing, can't you?" he asked as she came down, setting her guitar on its stand.

"Not ever'thing, surely,"

"What else is there? You can draw, you can fix random bits and pieces of Serenity, you can shoot damn well, you can steal without gettin' caught, you can play guitar, write music and sing. Don't leave much room for improvement, does it?"

"Plenty room,"

"For what?"

"Oh, book learnin', decent handwriting, good clothes, a decent job, some sorta religion, friends… boyfriends…" She added the last one as an afterthought. Mal raised an eyebrow.

"Clothes- no one here had special clothes. Or a decent job, or much of a religion, except Book when he's on of course, and as far as friends you got us now. And book learnin'- no one wants to stay cooped up inside with a book when we land on weird planets! And handwriting- computers do everything anyhow. Boyfriends… now I don't know about the one…" His grin was mischievous, and she loved it and withdrew from it all at once.

"Couldn't be any sorta help there now couldja, Cap'n?" she teased. "Nope, none whatsoever," he said, just as teasing, in return. She laughed- it was a bubbly sound, a sound of pure childish happiness, the laugh of a kid opening Christmas presents.

"You were good entertainment though, honest," Mal said, smiling, trying not to look at his untouched 'meal.' Ana had, very unexpectedly, turned bright red.

"You're just sayin' that. I ain't that great, Cap'n,"

"You really were! It was very pretty,"

"Aw… thank ya Cap'n,"

"You should keep calling me Cap'n you know. It's only appropriate,"

"I should? Why?"

"Because," he said with a flourish, "You're now going to be an official member of my crew," Ana's jaw dropped. "You're gonna let me in?"

"Yeah, why not? You're super-handy,"

"And my papers are up to date,"

"True,"

"What I am gonna be, 'xactly?" Mal made a face.

"Haven't worked out all the details yet. For now though, you can be the… um… handyman. Er, handy-person," Ana laughed again. Mal could almost hear a rhythm.

"Ok, then, Cap'n, official handy-person Analith reporting for duty," she said with a salute. Mal grinned.

"Alright, your first job is to get everyone out here and sing to all of us, a new song," Ana made a face. "Is this gonna happen often?"

"Maybe,"

"Mal!"

"Cap'n Mal! Remember!"

"Fong luh," She turned on her earpiece. "Ok Wash, get everyone out here for the grand finale, Cap'n's orders," The remainder of the crew emerged from behind the curtains, out of the door to the cockpit. She grudgingly sang for them, and Mal discreetly threw away his soup, munching on a protein ration block, listening with relish as Ana sang another song.

"There was once a time when you said hello and  
I was always the one who said goodbye  
I've never felt that quite like now  
That you turned the tables around  
Now you are bidding farewell,

"I'm not the one who lost their way  
You lost your whole life to me  
Given up and left to cry, I put your memories away  
And now there in my mind  
They're hiding to come out one day,

"A place we can go, far back into time  
When you loved me so and I always said goodbye  
I dream of your face and wonder why I pushed you  
Away, because I felt it so much when you turned and said  
Goodbye  
Goodbye  
Goodbye  
It is not mine, it is not yours  
I wonder why I ever said  
Goodbye  
Goodbye  
Goodbye,"


	6. Companion Scars

**Part Six: Companion Scars**

Summary: Mal is troubled, and Ana has a theory.

"I've set a course for Greenleaf," Wash said to Mal, who was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea in his hand that he had yet to drink.

"Right,"

"Should be there in about four days,"

"Right,"

"Somethin' the matter, Cap'n?"

"Nothin', Wash,"

"Alright…" Wash returned to the cockpit, his forehead wrinkled with worry. Ana entered, making two cups of tea. Mal suddenly slammed his cup on the table and went to his room, leaving Ana to raise an eyebrow after him.

"Thanks," Kaylee said as she was handed one of the cups of tea, her face streaked with dirt, the top buttons of her jumpsuit undone. She sat on the floor of the engine room.

"Sure," Ana said, sipping her tea as well. They sat in silence for a moment, and Ana sat the unfinished cup down on the shelf of tools.

"What's the matter?" Kaylee asked, looking at Ana. Her face was sullen but not, creased and thoughtful, frozen.

"I'll be around," she replied, and got up and headed towards the Captain's room.

A knock at the door sent Mal's patience through the roof. "What?" he snapped at it.

"Just me Cap'n," Ana's voice said.

"What do you need?"

"A word, that's all,"

"Cheeng jeen," Ana climbed down the steps, looking sort of humbled.

"What?" Mal asked, but not as snappy as he'd been before. She really was pretty, even when she was a little dirty from helping Kaylee in the engine room.

"There's something wrong, isn't there?" she asked, and her eyes were like stinging probes, and he could not hold her gaze. "Nothing's wrong," he replied with his teeth clenched, his muscles tight.

"Yer body language would indicate otherwise," Ana said, looking at his clenched fists.

"It's none of your business," This was greeted with a mirthless laugh.

"Oh, how many times I've heard the one before. Well it _is_ my business- you're my captain, sir," Mal was silent, and he released his tension, letting out a huff.

"You're thinking of Inara, aren't you?" His eyes suddenly leapt to her face.

"How did you know?"

"It's not a well hidden secret, in case you didn't notice," she said without sarcasm. "Everyone was surprised you let me have the shuttle. I was bound to understand one day," Mal looked at the ground, his heart was like a coiled spring.

"You're sufferin'. I can see it, now especially. Ya don't have to do that, ya don't have to hurt yerself. It's really counterproductive to this ship 'n stuff, plus it makes a body feel like go se," She had knelt beside him as he sat on his bed, and instead of it feeling out of place it felt perfectly normal. After all she had come in here before. But her words burned him, made his ego shudder.

"I'm not hurtin' myself," he said, indignant. "Yeah you are. That's what sufferin' is, it's all mental. I got this philosophy…" She pulled a necklace out of her pocket, a leather strip with a beautiful old Japanese coin strung on it through the hole in its middle.

"Ya see this? It's a real old coin, it a'int even worth anythin' now. This is the only piece of jewelry I own," Mal couldn't help but chuckle. "Really?"

"Yep. It means very little to me, though- I wore it at my mama and pap's 50th anniversary, but they got to 55 before the gorram Alliance officers killed them. Then I wore it to my brother's first weddin', but they got themselves divorced a year later. I wore it to my cousin's shindig on Shadow, that was ages ago. I wore it to one of my old friend's birthday parties, no big deal," She twirled the necklace around her finger.

"So this here is a memory, a memory of life. Of my life. That's the only reason I 'kep it. It's a piece," she held it dangling in front of them.

"This here is a memory. I got my theory, and I a'int asking you to accept it. But listen. Here's the memory. It can be anythin', sentimental, important, or not. But if you let it go…"-she dropped the necklace to the floor- "You lose it. It'll get buried under denial and forgot. But," She snatched up the coin and took Mal's hand. He strained against her touch; it was feather light, but firm, demanding, insistent, and passionate.

"If you keep 'em, hold onto 'em…" She put the coin necklace into his hand, closing her hand around his and his hand around it. "You always got them, they'll always be there. And, in a sense, so'll who or whatever they were about. Them's pieces too. Don't' throw 'em away, or you'll be broken, missin' parts. But if ya overuse 'em, they'll die out, get tired, stop workin'. You think about it," she said, leaving him holding the coin, staring after her as she left.


	7. My First Job

**Part Seven: My First Job**

JOSS WHEDON OWNS FIREFLY... of course :

Wash was doodling around with his dinosaurs in the cockpit again.

"Master T-Rex, what are we going to do??? Our planet is being bombed by giant cats! You pathetic little Spiny! We're going to blow their heads off of course! But Master, we don't have any more grenades!"

"Ask Jayne, he's got plenty of 'em," Wash spun around in his chair, startled by Ana's sudden presence.

"God, you scared me!"

"Sorry," her smiled was apologetic and teasing at the same time.

"What can I do for you?"

"Well, if you're not too busy being bombed by giant cats, I gotta ask you a question," Wash turned pink from ear to ear.

"I think they've laid off the bombings for now," he said bashfully. Ana smiled again and sat at the other piloting station, riding shotgun as the ship cruised smoothly through space to Paquin.

"Kaylee let somethin' slip 'bout the Cap'n taking me along with y'all on this latest job. So I'm here to probe you for information," She raised an eyebrow. Wash shook his head.

"I was afraid she'd tell. Yeah, Mal wants you to go. He said as a gun hand, but to tell you the truth I think he's been researching you,"

"What the hell is that s'posed to mean?" Ana's face grew serious.

"Well… it said in a profile that you were a spastic psychic. Like River, but not anywhere near as strong. I think it sort of took to his head," He pointed a finger at the side of his head. "But in any case, if you've been doing like us and getting a way from the Alliance, then you've about got to be a good shot. And we could always use help on this boat," Ana was looking at the controls in front of her with a creased brow and set jaw.

"Thanks for not bein' a pain in the ass and makin' me guess 'round, Wash," she said, getting up and stalking off to the engine room. Wash watched her go, as did Zoë, who had been heading towards her husband as Ana exited. They eyed her curiously.

"What's got into her?" asked Zoë, going into the cockpit and looking at Wash with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not really sure," he replied. "But we're coming up on Paquin, should take about two hours. Probably should tell Mal,"

There was a clicking at the intercom system. Kaylee put down her wrench.

"This is your Captain speaking, we're approaching Paquin, you have half an hour to get yourselves ready. Ana and Simon, please report to the cockpit immediately," Kaylee looked at Ana.

""Ai ya…" Ana picked up her new handheld machine gun and stuck it in its holster next to the pistol. She was glad that Jayne wasn't averse to sharing weapons, and it felt reassuring to have an automatic by her side again. Simon joined her on the way up to the cockpit.

"Alright, now, Simon," said Mal as they entered and Zoë left to join Jayne in readying the weapons. Wash was pulling delicately into the atmosphere of Paquin.

"I need you to make sure River doesn't get out of this boat all of this job, k? This a'int a great planet for you two to be seen on, and the people here will do anythin' for money. Keep with Kaylee and Wash on the ship. Hopefully, this will be a short trip," Simon nodded. Mal turned to Ana with a bit of a glimmer in his eye.

"And, without further ado, I'm gonna introduce you to life as an outlaw- Serenity style. We're goin' down there to meet with a man named Jackson Elliot Kesara- bit of a big shot, but he's scared as hell of the Alliance 'cause he deals in the black market. So it's going to be a pretty tense job. I want you to go with us, as a gun hand, and to keep an eye on the surroundings, y' know what I mean? Hopefully you won't have to put that thing to use," He nodded at the handheld, "but y' can never tell. Dong ma?" Ana nodded somberly.

The town on Paquin was a decent one, not terribly dirty but not terribly rich either. Ana walked beside Zoë, in front of Jayne, and behind the Captain. He led them to a large house on the outskirts of the town. A guard was standing outside.

"Why are you here?" he said simply, fingering his gun.

"'Cause your wonderful master told us to get here. Wouldn't want to piss him off, now would ya?" Mal's fingers were in his belt loops, but he was ready to snatch his gun at a moment's notice. The guard gave a huff.

"Welcome, guests," he said rather reluctantly. The double doors swung open and the four of them went inside, and were led by another gruff looking guard to a room in the back that seemed to be a leisure room, full of books and computers and couches. A man, who was morbidly obese and graying at the beard, sat on one of the couches, looking rather intently at an old piece of brass jewelry- a thick, oversized ring.

"Well," he said speculatively as he set the ring down on a table nearby. "Captain Malcolm Reynolds and company, I assume?"

"You assume correctly," Mal said with calculated uncaring.

"Welcome to my house," Kesara said, holding his open palms in the air. "I hear you get the job done, and done well,"

"What's the job?" Mal asked shortly.

"Well, it's kind of a classified shipment, but I'm sure that's alright with you,"

"Fine and dandy,"

"The 4:17 will be pulling into the station here in five and a half hours. There's a high security car at the end which is bringing in some goods that will be of value to me, and I want you to steal them. There are cameras, but of course they're obvious, and it doesn't matter if they know that the items were stolen if they don't see who stole them. They'll never find out, because by the time they come around here looking for the goods, they'll be in another system. I can assure you this much," he looked sidelong at Mal.

"I need this to be quick and clean and simple, dong ma?" Mal inclined his head.

"It'll be just that, if the price is right,"

"I can offer almost 50,000," he said, but Ana saw his eyes dart over to a blank space on the wall. Suddenly, she seemed to stop thinking, stop breathing, just for a second. Then she stared unblinking at him.

"Actually I think 43,175 rounds down. It'll be more like 40K," she said, fingering her handheld. Mal looked sideways at her. Jayne's forehead went spastic.

"What the hell are you talkin' about?" he asked. Ana still looked at Kesara.

"He's only got 43,175. It's much closer to 40K than 50K,"

"How do you know?" Zoë asked her. Ana pointed to the blank place on the wall that Kesara had been eyeing.

"It's all there, he said so," she looked at him, and her gaze went straight through him. "At least, his eyes said so. You should teach them to behave better, sir, they're fond of betrayin' you," Kesara looked agitated.

"You had better to shut your lying comrade up, Reynolds, or she'll have you all stuffed full of bullets," he said. Ana knew his threat was empty, but she lowered her arm and shook her head in an annoyed manner. Mal was looking agitated as well.

"How do I know she's lyin'?" he said with a frown. Kesara's eyes glinted.

"Who do you trust more?"

"Her," Mal said simply. Ana looked at him, a little confounded- he hadn't really known either of them for long. She held her head a little higher.

"Fine, have it your own way," The fat man pulled a small gun out from his coat and pointed it, quivering, at Mal. He cocked it threateningly.

"Now who do you trust more?"

"Her," Mal said again, not moving from his spot. Guards came in and stood in a circle around them, their guns raised.

"I don't much like being told I'm a liar, Mr. Reynolds," he said. "That could earn you at least a bullet hole before you leave," Ana stepped closer to Mal.

"That bullet will have to go through me first," she said, pulling her gun out of the holster but pointing it at the ground.

"It might just," he replied. Zoë now stood close to Mal on the other side.

"And me," she said, and Jayne looked distraught.

"You too I suppose?" Kesara said to him.

"Naw, I'll be the one putting a bullet through you before your bullet can get to any of them," he retorted, and was welcomed to it by the sound of the guards cocking their own guns.

"Hey, now, folks, I appreciate the defense and all, but if he's letting us leave then we best git goin'," Mal said.

"Whatever gave you the idea, you'd better banish it. I have plans for you," He had this evil look on his face, and Ana knew that this time, he wasn't bluffing.

"Awfully touchy, aren't you? If you could just ignore my crew people here and tell me what the job is, we'd get it done, you'd have your cargo, we'd have our cash, and we'd all be happy and prob'ly a lot less pained," Mal said, his forehead creased.

"People like this crew of yours are the kind of people that put morality first. In this mission, morality isn't a factor. How could I trust you not to snoop into things you have no business knowing?"

"Personally," Ana interjected before Mal could open his mouth, "I think that snooping into stuff we a'int s'posed to know a'int real moral. So not only are you a liar, yer a stupid hwooh-dahn that a'int realized when he's gone and contradicted hisself-" But before she was really done with the last sentence, a shot fired and her eyes went wide and empty as she gasped, and fell to the floor clutching her side. Mal felt something in him jerk like a wild thing as his eyes went from Ana's fallen form to the now smoking gun in Kesara's hand.

"YOU BASTARD SON OF A-" he stared to scream and leap at the man, but the guards acted fast and had them all in a moment, their guns were ripped from their fingers and they yelled in protest, but another shot fired at the ceiling by Kesara shut them up.

"Take them downstairs, and make sure they're bound up tight. I don't want the little cockroaches getting away," The fat man's face was all seriousness and anger. Mal hardly noticed the painfully tight grip on his arms as the guards drug him and the others towards a staircase that led down- he watched in helpless rage as Ana's bleeding body was hauled and drug on the floor behind them. Kesara raised an arm.

"Oh, and make sure that one is tied up separately. She gets the special treatment," His eyes filled with spite and wicked joy at the scream Mal let out.


	8. Pain is Part of Life

**Part Eight: Pain is Part of Life**

Wherever they were, it was very badly lit- but even so, Mal could see Ana tied to a thick pole about five yards away from the other pole where he, Zoë, and Jayne had been bound. Her head hung, her entire shape crumpled up in the pain she was feeling, trying desperately to get the bonds on her hands to give way so that she could get out of the standing position she had been roped into. The others were bound the same way. Jayne was coughing as he came to, and Zoë was already awake, looking around at the dank room. Ana breathed in and out raggedly, and Mal knew that she had never even gone unconscious.

"Ana… Ana!" He hissed. "Are you alright?" She moaned softly, a painful sound, and winced.

"Don't worry, we'll get out of here, somehow…" said Zoë softly.

"But I don't think you will," said Kesara's voice out of the shadows, and he and two of his guards stepped into the light from a doorway- one was wheeling a large cart that had a lot of things on it.

"So, Reynolds, since you're the captain, I wonder which do you think I should do first… should I torture you and let her watch, or torture her and let you watch?" His grin was horrid and if Mal had been able he would've strangled him right then and there. He gritted his teeth.

"If you touch her, Kesara, I swear to God I'll cook you alive and eat you," The only reply he got was a harsh chuckle.

"But he'll do it after I've disconnected some of your limbs from your body," Zoë growled.

"You should all learn some manners!" Kesara said, and pulled a whip off the cart. He slashed it out across the backs of the three, and it stung like fire licking their shoulders. Zoë let out a cry, Mal and Jayne gritted their teeth.

"So maybe if I punish you enough you'll learn that I make the rules around here," he looked daggers at them. "And my rules involve you not back talking me. Now, I ask again, Reynolds, who should I torture first? You, or your precious smart ass over there?" He indicated Ana with a fat finger.

"I think I answered that before," Mal said lowly. Kesara grinned.

"And I could interpret that answer a lot of ways, couldn't I? I could take it as you asking for a lashing-" The whip leapt across their backs twice more. "Or…" he slowly hauled his grotesque body nearer to Ana's crumpled figure.

"I take as you practically begging me not to hurt one of your dear little friends," He grinned evilly at her, and let the whip lash out across her face. She gave a strangled cry, and a cut on her cheek began to ooze blood. Mal gripped his hands into fists so hard that he was beginning to cut his palms with his own fingernails.

"So which should I take it as, Reynolds?" he dangled the whip by his side. "Which one would give you the most real pain?' he practically hissed. Mal's nostrils flared and he looked at Kesara with so much pure hatred in his eyes that if he hadn't been bound, someone would've been dead- and it certainly wouldn't have been him. He then looked at Ana. She was trying to breathe, making small crying sounds as the blood seeped from her shot wound and her face. He shouldn't have done it.

"Ah, I see that you'd put your crew before anything, wouldn't you? Well, that certainly is an adequate answer to my question, _Captain_," His face was the epitome of wicked pleasure as he sent the lash in a storm over Ana's back, and with each whip she cried out, and tears trickled down her cheeks. Mal watched in horror and hate, wanting so badly to do something- but he was helpless to move. Jayne couldn't watch, and looked down, wincing with each cry Ana gave. Zoë snarled at Kesara the whole time. After a few more lashings, the fat man turned to a guard.

"Bring out my splitters," he said, and the guard bowed and drew a box out from the pile on the cart, taking the whip. Kesara opened the box and drew out a long, thin piece of bamboo-like wood, and sharpened it just a tad before handing it to the other guard, who then took Ana's hands and slid the splitter under her fingernail. She screamed, a sound that ripped right through Mal's heart.

"STOP IT! You sick hwooh dahn, stop it!" he yelled, and the guard actually drew the splitter out from under Ana's nail. Kesara's eyes narrowed, and he picked up the whip and sent it across the three's backs again.

"Will you ever learn to keep silent?!" he almost shrieked. "Get out the hot iron, then, and she shall know pain," The guards put the splitters away and then drew out a long iron rod and a heater that was hot as the fires of hell almost as soon as it was turned on. Mal could feel the heat on his face from as far away as he was.

"The wound she already has," he said to the guard, who held the rod over the heater until it glowed. The guard nodded and, as the other three watched in mute horror, he began to poke Ana's shot wound. Her screams were inhuman. Mal clenched his fists and lowered his head, closing his eyes and felt a tear trickle down his face. The other guard gave the three bound together another lashing as Ana continued to be tortured. Finally the heat of the rod had actually burned her bonds, and she slumped to the floor, and the guard stopped whipping the others and gave the whip to Kesara.

"You are the most rude…" A lash on her back and a scream.

"…Prideful…" Again. Mal winced.

"…arrogant…" And again.

"… and stupid being I have ever had the misfortune of being involved with," One more lash. The other three were in almost mental states of rage.

"And now you know what happens when people like you get under my skin-"

"And you're about to find out what happens when people like you hurt our friends," said Wash's voice suddenly, and he and Simon and Kaylee stood in the doorway with their guns pointed right a Kesara's head. Ana was by now an unconscious, bleeding lump on the floor. Zoë, Jayne, and Mal all looked up in joy as their comrades came towards them.

"Guards-!" But two shots went off and the guards dropped dead in their tracks.

"You're next if you don't put that whip down and back away slowly," Simon said, pointing his gun between the man's fear-soaked eyes. "Alright, alright…" Kesara dropped the whip and put his hands up, slowly stepping backwards, his eyes locked onto Simon's barrel. Kaylee went over to Ana while Wash went and cut the bonds of the others. Zoë and Jayne stood facing Kesara and Wash handed them guns, but Mal made straight for Ana.

"Analith… Ana can you hear me? Ana wake up!" Mal took her bloody face in his hands and could scarcely see it through his watery vision, her closed eyes telling him nothing, not knowing or caring why he was hurting so badly for her, cradling her limp body in his arms. Kaylee felt tears sting her eyes.

"Now, we're leaving, and you had better keep your mouth shut. In fact, Jayne, why don't you take care of him?" Simon said. Jayne eyed Kesara with this idiot grin and tied him up as tightly as he could, putting duct tape around his mouth.

"If you ever lay a hand on any of us again, especially Ana, you're going to die a very slow and painful death. That is not a threat, it's a promise," Simon hissed at Kesara, and then he turned to Mal and Ana. Mal was holding her body in his arms, getting up off his knees to his feet.

"We have to get her back to the infirmary, _now_," he said simply, and Simon nodded and they all made their way out to the hover truck that Wash, Simon and Kaylee had ridden to the house.

* * *

"How is she?"

Mal's back was cleanly bandaged and he could hardly bear trying to slip into a shirt, so he was simply going without. He was in his pants though, but also shoeless. He sat on the cot next to Ana's. She lay on her back, her eyes closed and her breathing shallow, all her wounds bandaged as well. She also wasn't wearing clothes, but the sheet covered up her lower body and the bandages were covering her upper body. An IV needle was pinching her wrist.

"Not very well, I'm afraid. She's almost into a coma, but not quite. Her hip is going to be one hell of a scar, after the branding he did to her shot wound," Simon stood on the opposite side of Ana's cot from Mal, scratching his head wearily.

"She a'int gonna die, is she?" Mal looked at him, his eyes almost pleading.

"I don't think so, no. But I'm not sure how well she'll be able to function after she wakes up. She's going to be out cold for a while yet, I think… I hope she miraculously wakes up sometime soon or something though. It would probably help her to be awake and feeding herself," Simon sat on a chair, sighing. Mal just looked at Ana's solemn, peaceful features, his forehead creased and his eyes thoughtful.

"I don't care if she needs to relearn everythin' she ever knew when she wakes up, I'll teach her," he mumbled.

"Mal, I've never seen you so worried about anyone," Simon wasn't joking or teasing- his face was absolute seriousness.

"Prob'ly 'cause I a'int never been so," Mal said matter-of-factly. His face softened a little as he continued to watch her stillness. "She's just… bewitched me I suppose,"

"Mmm hmm…" Simon said softly, eyeing Mal almost knowingly. Suddenly, Ana gave a jerk, and her breathing picked up, and her eyes opened- wide, grey, empty for just a moment.

"Ana!" Mal smiled at her as she blinked and looked around, her eyes falling on him. Her lips ever so slowly curled up into a tiny smile.

"I knew we'd get out… somehow…" she whispered. Simon shook his head. "We found you, don't worry," he said, checking her IV. "Are you in pain?"

"Look like it?" she breathed, and eyed him skeptically. Her back was stiff against the mattress and she could barely summon then energy to move, plus her face ached.

"Yes, and so I'm leaving you on this," Simon said pertly. "If you have any troubles, you two, come get me. Mal, you can stay with her for the night can't you?"

"Sure, but where're we headed?"

"Greenleaf again,"

"Right, then. I'll be here,"

"K, night," and Simon left. Mal looked at Ana's barely open eyes.

"I'm so sorry. I shoulda taken that beatin'. Not you," He shook his head lightly and frowned at her sadly.

"No… I could never watch that… Mal…" she panted, and he could see what a huge strain it was for her to speak.

"Shh, it's aright now…" he rested his head on her pillow next to hers and closed his eyes.

"Just sleep for now, ok?" She was drifting off in a moment. He could feel her breathing deepen. Just before they both fell asleep, Mal got the strange urge to whisper one last word of comfort to her.

"Pain is part of life in the Black. But pain is also somethin' that don't last too long. You remember that," She gave a tiny, almost innocent sigh in reply, and before what he said was truly absorbed, they were both drifting off the shores of dreaming.


	9. While You Were Out

**Part Nine: While You Were Out**

"This is your Captain speaking, and yes folks, we've finally made it to Greenleaf, don't get yourselves too excited. We're actually here for no reason at all, so throw on yer Sunday trappins and we'll all go out and have a drink, maybe get some work. Landing in fourteen minutes, by the way,"

Ana blinked slowly as she woke up to Mal's voice over the intercom system, stiff and feeling a dull ache in her side. Simon came in as she tried to sit up and fell back onto the cot.

"Whoa, whoa, don't try to move too much there Ana," Simon said, coming over to her and situating her pillow. He took the now drained IV needle out of her wrist and she winced.

"So y'all are going to leave me here to rot while you get drunk off your asses, hm?" she whispered softly. Simon chuckled.

"Actually I think Mal was planning on staying on here to maybe help you try and walk?" Simon stroked her face softly. She smiled weakly at him and closed her eyes.

"That's terrible kind of him," she whispered. "Cause I ain't got no energy for nothin'," Simon shook his head.

"I got a ration block for you- granted it won't taste very good but at least it'll fuel you up a little,"

"I ain't got no appetite neither,"

"Well you'll get one soon enough. Now promise to behave until Mal comes in after we leave?" He got up from his chair and went towards to door.

"Alrighty then,"

"Alright, I'll be back later Ana,"

"Simon…" He turned to her.

"Yes?"

"Have a drink for me," she said, looking at him with a small smile through heavy-lidded eyes. Simon smiled at her.

"Alright,"

Mal sat down, again shirtless but well bandaged, in the chair near Ana's cot.

"Hey," he said softly to her. An eye cracked open.

"Why, hello there Cap'n Malcolm," Mal chuckled.

"It's Mal for God's sake," Ana laughed breathily and shortly, pausing to regain her breath.

"Alrighty then, Mal," He put a hand on her cot.

"Feel like eatin' any?"

"Not really. Prob'ly should anyhow,"

"I agree. Here," He helped pull her up into a mostly sitting position and then he unwrapped the ration block.

"Have a bite," She took the block.

"Oh, looks delicious…" she whispered sarcastically and smiled at him, taking a bite and making a face.

"Yeah, they ain't too appetizing,"

"No shit…" She took another bite. Regardless of how nasty they were, she had it eaten in a matter of minutes.

"Think you could get up?"

"You'd prob'ly have to help me a lot,"

"Better than nothing,"

"True,"

"Alright, then, slide over here," Ana slid over to his side of the bed and let a leg fall over the side, which Mal caught, and he took her arm and slowly she slid off the bed and stood up, wobbling.

"See, now, there you go!" Mal smiled at her. She looked up and smiled at him, and then suddenly lost her balance and fell into him. They just laughed.

"Well, at least you stood for a minute there,"

"Yeah… well… I gotta walk. But this leg's almost numb,"

"Well, you need me to smack it for you and get it feelin' again?" Mal smirked at her.

"Think I'll be alright, there, Cap'n,"

"Alright, well can you stand again?" Ana pushed away from him, grimacing, and used his firm body as support as she slowly stood herself up. She left like a baby giraffe trying to stand after it was born.

"You good?"

"I think so,"

"Well, let's take a step,"

"Alright," Mal backed away from her slowly. She took two hasty steps before leaning into him again.

"Hey, good job!" Ana smiled, looking at her feet. They wobbled unsteadily on the floor.

"I think I'm startin' to feel that leg again," She looked up at him.

"Well that's good to hear! Now let's get to the counter over there," He backed away from her again, and she stepped to keep up with him. About three steps from the counter, she stumbled a little and fell into Mal's stomach. He made a pained face.

"Oooh, that one kind of hurt there a little, darlin', gonna have to watch that," Ana was leaning into his stomach still, her arms wrapped around his waist tightly so she wouldn't hit the ground. Mal couldn't avoid the fact that that particular position sent his head spiraling. The fact that he'd grabbed her head to also keep her from falling wasn't helping much.

"I'm gonna fall…. Mal!!" Ana closed her eyes and clung to him for dear life. Mal grabbed her waist and hauled her up as well as he could, but she still clung to him. Eventually they managed to get to where Mal was leaning against the counter and Ana's face was in his chest, her arms clinging around under his arms. Mal sighed and laughed.

"Wow… we're in quite a little pickle here ain't we?" Ana laughed into his chest.

"Mmph," was her reply. Mal shook his head and tried to suppress this weird surge in his stomach.

"Here… can't you stand up?" Ana heaved herself against him and eventually got to where she could stand up.

"Happy?" she looked at him. Mal made a face.

"Alright so now let's walk to the door… maybe down the hall? Towards my room, say,"

"Alright…"

They had got as far as the door to Mal's room before Ana collapsed and sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, panting. Mal sat next to her.

"Hey, you did good," he assured her. She smiled and closed her eyes, breathing heavily.

"You just gave me the biggest workout I've had in a good long time, ya know," she said softly. Mal looked at her. Even with her skin unusually pale from her weak state and her cheeks flushed pink and her brow glistening from the work of walking on such injuries, he thought he'd never seen anyone so pretty. Not even pretty- she was beautiful. Her large grey eyes were like looking at the sky back on Earth before a storm, framed with large black lashes and set in a well constructed face, her cheekbones stood out, her delicate nose situated perfectly between the hypnotic eyes and her full lips that were almost drained of color for now because she was so weak. But still she was so amazingly beautiful, and talented, and good. He just knew in his heart that she was good.

"I'm glad," he said, leaning closer to her. She let out one long breath and opened her eyes, looking up at him with this face that was blank and yet full of emotion at the same time.

"You should be,"

"Why should I be?" He could feel that they were getting closer by the second.

"Not a whole lotta men can say that," She was smiling a little devilishly.

"Oh, I'm special, ain't I?" Mal said lowly, smiling just as devilishly.

"Oh you're not _that_ special yet…" Closer.

"Mm so how do I get to be _that_ special?" Closer.

"Wouldn't you like to know…?" He could count her eyelashes.

"I… really… would…" But before they could talk any more, Mal has pressed his open mouth into hers. And before he thought about what he was doing, his tongue slipped into her mouth and he was kissing her deeply, their heavy breaths colliding with each other. Her hand touched his cheek, and then left a trail down his neck and rested on his chest. It was like nothing he'd ever felt before, the delicate touch of her hand and the warm softness of her mouth that somehow he hadn't expected to affect him like it did. He felt heat rush all over his body and felt this sudden absence of romanticism and the presence of lust. Ana was leaning back against the wall and he moved to straddle her, kissing her still, and she wrapped her hand a round his waist and let him rise up holding her, wrapping her legs as firmly as she could around him as he carried her over to the door and opened it, climbing down into his quarters.

"Mal! We're back!" Wash called down the hall that was off the cockpit. There was a funny sounding thump. He scratched his head- no reply came. Zoë walked up behind him.

"The Captain is either asleep, or left, or something," Wash said to his wife, and she looked at him a little skeptically.

"MAL!" She called loudly.

"What?" was a muffled reply- it was coming from the captain's quarters.

"We're back, is all!" Zoë yelled.

"Alright!" And then silence. Jayne walked up behind them.

'Uh, what's going on?"

"I'm not really sure…" Wash said, looking rather intently at the door to Mal's room.

"Where's Cap'n Mal?" Jayne asked.

"In his room, for some reason," Zoë said, shrugging and turning back into the cockpit. Suddenly Simon came running from the other end of the hallway.

"Um, where's Ana?" he asked. Jayne's forehead grew about fifteen wrinkles.

"Not around here, why?"

"She's not in the infirmary," Simon said, looking wide-eyed at Wash.

"Oh shit," Wash said. "MAL!" he hollered. "WHERE'S ANA?"

"What?" Mal's muffled voice came in reply.

"WHERE IS ANA!?" Simon bellowed. The door suddenly opened and Mal climbed out, his shirt not even tucked into his pants and untied at his neck.

"Gentleman! Relax! She's right there," he made an elaborate sweeping motion with his hand and Wash, Jayne, and Simon all looked down into the room to see Ana's messy head of hair barely peeking out from the covers of Mal's cot. Mal was grinning a little too widely.

"And pray stop all that hollerin! Don't wanna wake the little girl up!" he said, and sauntered with an usually happy look on his face into the kitchen. Simon, Jayne, and Wash all looked at each other, their foreheads creased.

"What…" Simon started, but Jayne interrupted him.

"Ten bucks says they had sex," he said shortly and rather disappointedly, and put one of his ammo cartridges into his belt and walked off towards his own room.

"He's so subtle," said Wash.

"I know," sighed Simon.


	10. Strange Occurences and Chocolate

**Part Ten: Strange Occurrences And Chocolate  
AN:** Sorry for the REDICULOUS delay in updates but I have more chapters for you... Reviews will encourage me to write more!!!! (hint hint.)

* * *

"Cap'n?"

"Yes, Kaylee?" Mal was sitting in the cockpit, driving while Wash took a nap in his quarters with Zoë.

"You ever thought you were just mad about somebody?"

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Like…" Kaylee's eyes grew bright and distant. "Like you would give anything in the whole wide world just to hold them for a real long time? You know, like really super in-love?" Mal let out a low chuckle.

"I reckon that's a rare and fanciful thing to be thinkin' on, lil one,"

"Who ever said _I_ was the one who was thinkin' on it?" Kaylee asked indignantly.

"Your face did," Mal said with this ever so pleasant smile that wasn't entirely directed at Kaylee.

"Aw, well, Cap'n, looks can be decievin'," Kaylee said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, but they can also give stuff away, ya see," Mal said with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, let's hear _you_ talk about love, mister!"

"Now why in the powerful heavens would you want me to do that?"

"Just to see what all _your_ face gives away,"

"You think I'd do it willingly now that yer plannin' to put me to shame by it?"

"It ain't a shame to be in love, Cap'n,"

"Fine. I say that love is somethin' that you go lookin' fer it, you ain't never bound to find it. But whenever it finds you, cuz that's what it does, it's a mighty confusin' piece of work," But even as he said such a disdainful comment about love, his eyes were sparkling like nothing Kaylee had ever seen.

"Right. I read ya there, Cap'n. Goodnight," Kaylee said with a tilt of her head and a sly smile.

"Night," was the captain's distracted reply.

* * *

River was wandering the halls, which was quite common. She poked her head into the infirmary when a dream someone was having whispered to her and drew her in. She saw Ana lying on her side, her wounded hip off of the cot, breathing oddly. She noticed these ragged, uneven breaths and wrinkled her forehead. Creeping with utter silence to the side of the cot, she laid a hand lighter than a feather on the leg just below Ana's bandaged hip wound. Suddenly, River felt a surge of odd trembling musical notes and scrambled words.

Ana stopped breathing and her monitor started bleeping berserk.

"SIMON!" River screamed, and the sound woke everyone in the ship who wasn't awake already. Several pairs of footsteps were pounding down the hall in a moment.

"River, what is it? What's- Ana!" Simon was staring at the monitor, which kept on bleeping erratically. Mal and Jayne pounded in.

"What's going on?"

"Ana…?" Jayne looked at her, his brow knit. River's hand was still on Ana's leg.

"Simon! Simon! It's here! It's here! Get it out!" she started saying loudly.

"What? What are you talking about, River?"

"Here! In this scar! It's here, right here!" River flew to a drawer, pulled out a surgery marker and flew back to the cot where Ana was lying motionless, ripping off her bandages and outlining a circular shape on top of the not-quite-healed scar on Ana's hip.

"Cut it there! Get it out of her! Oh God, Simon, she's going to die!" Simon blinked.

"Something's embedded in her? What is it, River?"

"JUST GET IT OUT!" River screamed and fainted on the cot beside Ana, clutching her forehead.

"What do we do?" Jayne asked. Outside they could hear then others staying in the hall, shuffling around.

"You heard the girl," Mal said, trying to think rationally. "Get it out. Surgery, Simon, surgery!"

"But-but! It's so impromptu! How do I plan? Something could go wrong!" Simon said desperately.

"If you don't do something Ana is going to DIE!" Mal bellowed. Jayne pointed at Ana's hip.

"There's what looks like your instructions. Gas her and start cuttin', doc,"

After a few moments of blind panic, there was a gas mask pumping oxygen and ether into Ana's lungs, and Simon was masked and gloved, poised with a knife to begin. He had to be super careful- he knew that if he cut a tendon wrong, Ana would lose the use of her right leg. After only moments of deft incision, his knife hit something solid.

"Here! I've found it!" he said.

"Just get it out, that's all you need to worry about right now," Mal said through his mask. Simon went back to tugging the small spherical black object out of Ana's muscle. He chucked it into a surgical pan and began to whip-stitch Ana's skin back together after he gently bathed the open wound in antiseptic fluid.

"How in the hell did that get inside of her?" Jayne asked, looking bewilderedly at the object as he dabbed a cold cloth on River's forehead.

"I don't know, but if I had to guess I'd say Kesara put it there during or before his little torture session," Simon replied, cleaning the stitched area again and wrapping it up neatly in clean bandages.

"Why didn't we kill him… _why_…" Mal growled, more to himself than anyone.

"I'm beginning to wonder the same thing," Simon said as he tugged his bloodied gloves off. "I'm also wondering what that thing is and how it got her to stop breathing. Whatever it did, she's breathing now," He indicated the oxygen tank that Ana was now hooked up to.

"How long before she's breathing on her own?" Mal asked as they all began to pull their masks off.

"Not even a day, I hope. How soon are we scheduled to land on Shadow?"

"Three _weeks,_" Jayne groaned. Simon's face fell.

"Lord…I hope I don't run out of supplies for the IV. Those are hard to come by and expensive. I could only get my hands on a few on Greenleaf. But maybe after a while she'll not need them. You'll have to continue your walking lessons, Captain," Mal gave the smallest smile.

"Be happy to,"

* * *

"So… about this weird, black thing…" Wash said, sitting in the pilot's chair in the cockpit. "What exactly _is_ it?" Zoë looked at Mal with the same question on her face.

"Don't got the slightest clue. Kaylee is lookin' into it just now. I hope she finds out fast, cause whatever it is, it smells like trouble," Mal replied, turning to leave the cockpit and go to the kitchen. He was starved.

In the kitchen sat a pale faced Ana, her IV pole on wheels so that she could move around with it still dripping. She was nibbling rather reluctantly on a ration block and sipping some tea.

"Hey, how'd you get in here?" Mal asked, pulling himself a cup from the cupboard.

"Walked," Ana said simply and softly.

"Simon ain't gonna be too pleased, you meanderin' around the decks without nobody there to help you out,"

"He'll live, I reckon," Mal chuckled at this.

"Just don't give a damn, do ya?"

"Not really," Ana looked despondently at her ration block. "Cap'n, is there nothin' better on this ship to eat? I got no stomach for these things and a powerful hungerin' for somethin' decent,"

"It's Mal, and I _think…_" Mal was grinning viciously as he poured himself some tea, "…that maybe there is _somethin'…_"

"Somethin' like what?" Ana asked, perking up a little.

"Somethin' like… oh I dunno… a secret stash of maybe… _chocolate…_" He grinned at her and watched with delight as her eyes grew a mile wide.

"CHOCOLATE?!" she asked loudly.

"Shh! Don't wanna be sharin' that information, ya know," Mal said, winking at her.

"Oh… right…" Ana smiled sheepishly. "So… um… where might this, ah, 'secret stash' of chocolate be?"

"Why would I be tellin' you that, now?" Mal asked with a smirk.

"I'm yer handyperson! Just think, where'd you be without me to getcha in trouble, lose yer jobs for ya, get you tortured and just gen'rally screw stuff up?" Ana said with a wide smile.

"Oh, it ain't that yer not important to me or anythin'…" Mal said with a shake of his head and a raised eyebrow at her, "It's just, ya gotta be… oh, what'll we say… _privileged._"

"Ya know I'm the most privileged body on this boat," Ana said matter-of-factly, looking at him with this certain dagger look that Mal decided he'd like to avoid from that point onward if he could help it.

"That ain't what I meant," he said. "I meant… you gotta kinda, you know, work for it," Ana looked suspiciously at him.

"What kinda work?"

"Oh, nothin' special…" Mal looked with calculated disinterest at the ceiling as he sat in his chair close to where Ana was sitting.

"Oh come off it, Mal, _what?_" He suddenly turned to her, his eyes wide and bright.

"You finally called me Mal! That'll at least earn you a taste," He said with a wicked grin.

"Malcolm Reynolds, you're psychotic," Ana said, shaking her head. He laughed.

"You ain't the first to call me that, I promise,"

"I ain't surprised to hear it," Ana slumped onto the table, resting her arm first and then her head on top if it, facing the captain. "I ain't never gonna get no decent grub on this boat," she sighed, genuinely bummed out.

"Aw, I'm sorry, Ana. I'm just pickin' on ya cause I pick on ever'body I—" he stopped short.

"Ever'body you what?" Ana asked, her voice low and soft, looking up at him through her huge grey doe-eyes. Mal couldn't meet her gaze.

"Nothin'," he said. Ana sat up slowly, sliding closer to him on the chair. She felt the sudden urge to touch him- and she did. She slid her hand up to his face and held his cheek, and he looked at her, his face almost trying to be a scowl.

"Ya don't gotta be so tough all the time, Mal," she almost whispered, shaking her head and looking at him with sincere caring.

"You're one to talk, huh?" Mal asked in reply, his voice also going real low and a little husky. This wasn't lusty-husky. It was a low, emotional tone. It was full of thoughts. Ideas. _Feelings._

"You're right…" Ana looked at her hand on the table that was hooked up to the IV, the other hand sliding down from Mal's face and resting gently on his shoulder. Suddenly Mal touched her cheek, and she looked back up at him with a little, tiny smile. Mal leaned close to her and kissed her so softly that it was like having a butterfly beat its wings on her lips. After a few moments, though, he couldn't stand it anymore and kissed her properly. When he did pull away, she breathed in sharply and looked at him.

"That may earn you some chocolate, if there ever is any," he whispered to her, smiling gently and kissing her forehead as he stood up and put his cup in the sink. As he was going towards the door, Ana said, "Mal?"

He turned back to face her. "Yeah?"

"Could… could ya walk me back to the sickbay?" she asked bashfully. Mal smiled.

"Sure,"


	11. Tracked

Part Eleven: Tracked

* * *

"Hey! Ana! How're you doin' kid?" Jayne asked brightly when Ana walked up the hallway to the cockpit.

"I'm alive, I guess that's a good sign," she said with a smile, walking carefully down to the door of the cockpit. "Wash?" she called meekly.

"Hm? Oh, hey there! How're you feelin'?" Wash asked her, smiling and turning from his dinosaurs on the control board.

"I'm doing alright. Look, hey, that thing that Simon pulled out of me… What was it?" she asked, clinging to part of the ship tightly so she wouldn't fall over.

"I think that Simon is trying to figure that out even as we speak, so we should know in a little while," Wash smiled at her. "You're ok, and that's all we were worried about," He turned back to the control board, flipping a couple of switches.

"Thanks Wash," Ana said, a very small smile on her face as she left. She pulled her IV along behind her by the dripping tube, wandering back into the kitchen like she always did. She sat there all the time, not knowing why she did it. She sat at the table, her legs folded, her arms and hands in her lap, looking at the floor and then eventually closing her eyes. She did the old Buddhist trick of trying to make her mind as blank as possible. Then suddenly, she sat bolt upright. Grabbing her IV, she walked as quickly as she could to the door of Mal's room.

"Cap'n? Cap'n? Sir, I need a little help!" she called, thumping on the door by throwing her entire body weight against it. She leaned against it, exhausted, breathing hard. Moaning softly, she pushed herself upright and called again.

"Mal! It's Ana! Please, can ye hear me?" She heard a muffled shuffling and thumping, and had to grab hold of the ship's wall to keep balance as the door opened. Mal's head poked out.

"Need somethin'?" he asked, an eyebrow lifted. She realized, with a blush, that he was naked and merely covering his lower body with a towel. And, he was a little wet. _A sponge bath…_ Ana shook the thoughts from her head.

"Um, I need to know, ah…" she took a deep breath to slow her heartbeat. She must've looked pale because Mal's forehead furrowed.

"I need to know where Simon is with that thing," she said finally, and heaved a great sigh, resting her head on the wall, closing her eyes. She was so tired, so weak from everything going on.

"Er, he's in the engine room with Kaylee working on it, but by the looks 'o things you don't need to be tryin' to get there," he said, and tucked his towel around his waist tightly, climbing out and putting his arms around the poor girl's waist. She was pale, so pale that he could hardly tell her skin from her white tank top and knickers that she wore while in the sickbay and had been wearing for ages. She simply collapsed into him, limp as a boned fish, her chest heaving.

"You need to rest," he said softly to her, pushing her hair out of her face gently.

"No… this… this is… important…" God, she could hardly talk. He held her close, protectively.

"Not as important as your health," he said sternly.

"No, it is, please… Mal…" her huge doe-eyes looked up at him, pleading. "Take me to Simon," Mal grimaced.

"Alright, but you're _not _walking the whole way, here," he scooped her up from under her knees, and she curled up in his arms and held onto her IV pole. They went down to the engine room. Mal put Ana down, carefully. She stood for a moment, but then stumbled and caught herself on the door, and Mal put an arm around her shoulders and opened the door, leading her in as fast as he could.

"Simon! Simon!" she called, and there were Simon and Kaylee, looking at the pieces of the black thing that had been embedded in her hip. He looked up, and what a sight greeted him- the Captain of the ship in nothing but a towel hauling a little girl who was only half dressed and hooked up to an IV pole. But, before he could laugh at it, he saw the earnest look on Ana's face.

"What? What is it?" he asked her.

"Throw that thing out… Simon, get it off the ship. Get it… it's dangerous… they're tracking us…" She passed out before she said another word, Mal catching her and holding her to him.

"What is she talking about?" Simon asked him. Mal shrugged.

"I dunno, but if I were you, I'd throw it out, _now_,"

"You don't even know what it is!"

"Apparently, she does! She is in a real bad condition, and she still wanted to come down here 'n tell you, 'afore she thought it was too late. Now, Simon, I suggest you get that thing _out_," And without further ado, he scooped Ana up and carried her back to the sickbay, laying her out carefully on a cot, stroking her face. He looked at her for a long moment.

"Get well, Ana, get well. If I could give you my strength I would," he whispered to her, kissing her clammy forehead and walking quickly back to his room for some clothes.

* * *

"Zoë, please report to the cockpit immediately," said Wash's voice shakily over the intercom. Ana blinked, and spotted a small tray by her cot. It had a ration block, a cup of steaming tea, and a note on it. She sat up and picked up the note.

_Look under your pillow. ~MR_

She looked at the note suspiciously, and then put it back on the tray, eyeing her pillow. Then, her curiosity overwhelmed her and she pulled the pillow away, and gasped sharply. There, wrapped in glimmering silver tin paper, was a square of _Miller's Finest 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate_. She stared at it, and stared at it, tears beginning to sting her eyes. She picked it up carefully, her fingers trembling, looking at it in disbelief. Then, she began to slowly, ever so cautiously, pull the silver wrapper off. There, under the tin paper, was the shining, silk smooth surface of the chocolate, dark and rich, luxurious, tempting, maddening. She peeled the wrapper off and put it down on the tray, and lifted that wonderful square of heaven to her lips, letting her tongue touch the velvet surface, the wonderfully sweet, ever so slightly bitter, gloriously rich taste overwhelm her senses. She could smell it, for the first time in years, a decade. She ate it slowly, not even biting it but letting her teeth scrape a shaving off and letting it melt in her mouth, and at the last small bite, she shut her eyes, holding her fingers pressed to her lips as the bit melted and crumbled into nothing on her tongue, tears in her eyes. She thought she'd never be able to taste this again, and now here she was, just finished with a square of the best chocolate in the galaxy.

"Aw, I thought you'd save some for _me_," She opened her eyes to see Malcolm walking into the sickbay, smiling at her with nothing but joy in his face.

"You… that… MR… Oh, _Mal!_" Ana exclaimed, leaping from her cot to hug him tightly, her hands around his neck, her face buried in his shoulder. He was laughing.

"I 'figgered you'd be pleased," he said, hugging her waist affectionately.

"_Pleased?_ Oh, Mal, you're so _wonderful!_" A tear trickled down her check, and she did not let him go. He sat down on her cot with her in his lap.

"You're awful lucky. That's the only square I could get m' hands on, an' I had to hide it from the others. They got strawberries instead, but what 'lil we got it was all we could do to pay fer it, after all the stuff for th' ship 'n Simon's kit got bought," Ana looked at him, her eyes foggy and soft.

"You didn't have to do that fer me…" she said bashfully, turning pink. Mal was losing his mind at how adorable she was.

"Well, I think I did…" He nuzzled her nose with his own, and in that moment he sort of began to realize that he loved this girl. But it was only beginning to realize, and it was uncomfortably nervous, so he pushed the thoughts aside. She was laughing that laugh- he hadn't heard it in forever, that child's laugh of pure and utter happiness.

"Oh, Mal, Mal, Mal… you're so…" she shook her head softly, her hair flying around her face.

"So what?" he asked, challenging her with a look.

"So hopelessly amazing…" she said softly, resting her head on his shoulder, her nose nuzzled into his neck, her breaths soft on his skin and sending goose bumps down his spine. One of her hands was still around his neck and on his back, and the other was now slowly splaying its fingers out on his chest, feeling the soft fabric, shuffling it around on his skin. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back a little, tired out and beginning to feel his blood rise to his skin. He sighed. Ana's breaths got deeper. She nuzzled his neck again, her lips brushing the soft, smooth skin, her breath condensing just a little. God, _now_ he was hot.

"Thanks," he managed to say, in that low, rumbling rasp.

"I don't know how to repay you," she whispered to him with a sigh, and this only increased the breaths on his neck, and he found himself sliding a hand over the soft skin of her back that was exposed, sliding up under the fabric of her tank top, and then his other hand was on her stomach, feeling the skin slowly and meticulously, sliding down over her hip and her knickers, along her thigh, to her knee, back to her waist. She had the most amazing, baby-soft skin, perfect and pearly and smoother than silk. She lifted her head up slowly, letting her lips and her cheek slide along his neck and his cheek, turning herself around on him and slipping a leg over to his other side, straddling him, his hands running all over the top of her knickers, her back. She looked at him, her eyes heavy, leaning close to him.

"I could think of a few things…" he whispered, returning her look. For a moment, their eyes were locked, and he could see the fire in her gray ones as she could in his brown ones. Then, the stillness that gripped them broke, and he was kissing her passionately as her hands ran over his face, down his neck, a sensuous movement, and he finally noticed that her IV was removed, and for a moment he was just very happy. He began to kiss her cheek and chin, nibbling along her jaw line to nip her earlobe and then moving slowly and delicately down her neck, her hands sliding all over his back. She moaned very softly, and reached behind him to the wall where there was a switchboard. She flicked the lock to the room on and the lights off, so that only a pale, bluish glow came from the hall. There was a distant sound, from the engine room, but they paid it no attention.

The sound was Kaylee and Simon, who were rather busily removing each other's articles of clothing. They also heard a thump from somewhere, and paid it no attention either.

That thump was Zoë and Wash, locked in the cockpit. There was nothing but starlight for them.

Jayne was asleep in his room, and River was pretending to be asleep in the kitchen. But she was really listening to all the sounds, and rather than feeling disgust, she felt unbound joy.

* * *

"You're kiddin'," Mal stared at the screen, a disbelieving frown on his face.

"Nope. They're absolutely sure of our location, and they're following. We've got to get off of Greenleaf as soon as possible," Wash said, giving his worried look to the screen.

"Have you 'figgered out who they are?" Mal asked, still frowning.

"Not really, but it's almost without at doubt that whoever they are, they're working for Kesara," Wash gritted his teeth angrily.

"Mal, Ana can't stay on this ship. She's too weak to fight- hell, she can hardly walk. We've got to get her to a safe place and then draw them away, maybe even settle the score with Kesara completely so he doesn't have a chance to send more of his little hwooh dahns to come bother us. Mal…" Simon looked at the Captain earnestly. "We've got to leave her here, somewhere that she can be safe and get well," Mal's frown only deepened, and his brows knit themselves angrily.

"I'm _not_ leavin' any of my crew or passengers here, Simon. That ain't my way," Mal said, starting to stalk out of the cockpit.

"Then _your_ way will get her killed!" Simon yelled, scowling. Mal stopped, and did not turn around.

"We can hide her, or do somethin' with her if we gotta fight, but she ain't going to stay here on this miser'ble planet," he said very evenly.

"Mal, they're looking for her. What happens if we lose and she's hidden? They'll rip the gorram ship apart and find her and _then_ imagine what she'll have to go through before she dies! Mal, you're being irrational. She can be safe here, and we can return for her," Mal sighed and scowled to himself, trying to decide what he was going to do. Simon's eyes were pleading.

"Captain Malcolm… please… leave her here. For her sake and yours," he said, and there was a moment of dead silence. Mal still did not turn around. He looked at the floor of his ship.

"Where…?" He didn't have to finish the question.

"In a rehabilitation center. She needs to relearn walking, the uses of some of her muscles, and regain her strength. She can go in under an alias, and she'll be perfectly well taken care of until we come back for her," Simon said briefly. He looked at Mal trying to understand some kind of emotion from his back. There was a long, horrible silence.

"Alright… leave her here. She… she needs to be safe," Mal said quickly, and stormed off the bridge. Wash and Simon gaped gazed after him and exchanged worried glances.


	12. Rehab and Revenge

Part Twelve: Rehab and Revenge 

"Ana? Are you awake?" Simon leaned over her body, holding a small handheld that was blipping with information that he'd made up for her. Her eyes flickered and then opened slowly.

"Simon…?" she asked, pushing herself up and rubbing her eyes.

"Yes, it's me. Look, I have something really important to tell you," he was saying, but Ana wasn't really listening. She was in a strange room- a white one, in a real bed with white and cream sheets, a soft pillow, a silky blanket. There was a table by the bed with a lamp and her clothes folded neatly on it, a television screen and remote across the room, a small desk with a chair. There was a little bookshelf full of all sizes of electronic books, there was a tiny window at the top of the wall with a sheer curtain drawn over it, where the light was floating inside lazily. It was all too clean, too sterile. And it most certainly was not inside the ship Serenity.

"Simon, where am I?" she asked, looking at him in utter confusion. He took her arm and held it firmly to get her to look at him.

"Ana, listen to me. That thing, as I'm sure you know, was a tracking device, and now there are men coming to find us. You are too weak and too unwell to fight them-"

"No, Simon I-"

"And you need to stay here on Greenleaf and get strong again while we draw those men away from you, because they're coming for you, not so much as they're coming for us. Look, Ana," he held her arm tightly and looked into her eyes.

"You have got to be safe," he said, putting the handheld on her lap. "Here's your info, I created a profile for you to use, since you can't come in as yourself. Read it, it has everything you need to know in it," He was turning it off. "There are people here who will help you get better. And we _will_ come back for you, do you hear me?" Ana's eyes were watering in betrayal and confusion.

"Simon, why-"

"I don't have time, Ana. We are going to come back as soon as we possibly can, and you have got to stay here and get strong again. Do you understand?" She just stared at him, her look made his very soul hurt.

"_Do you understand me?_" He asked again. She nodded slowly, and looked at the floor. Simon felt tears in his eyes.

"Hey, we love you," he said, putting his hand on her cheek. "And we will come back for you. I promise," She just nodded numbly at him, and he stood up and went to the door, opening it slowly, turning back towards her.

"We'll come back for you, don't ever forget that," he said, his eyes watering. She nodded again, a tear sliding down her cheek. And then, he left. She was left to the clean, white silence of the room. And she cried.

* * *

Mal sat in his room, staring at the old portrait of him that Ana had drawn back when she had first climbed aboard the little Firefly ship, the huge X drawn over it in dissatisfaction, and his hands were shaking violently.

"I will kill that hwooh dahn the moment I get the chance," he hissed to himself, angry tears in his eyes. He put the picture back on top of the table behind his bed, and pulled his shirt off, sitting on the mattress, pulling at the sheet. After a few moments, he climbed onto the bed completely, laying a hand on the other pillow, where he thought Ana should have been at that very moment, as Wash put the ship on autopilot and took a rest himself.

"Zoë, we can kill these guys, right?" Wash asked his wife as he climbed in bed beside her.

"I think that we can do whatever we put our minds to, baby," she replied, looking at him sadly. They held each other and drifted off into sleep.

Simon was sitting in his room, and Kaylee was there with him, and River sat on the bed across from them, reading a book. They were all deathly silent. Kaylee looked at Simon, and all Simon could do to comfort her was to kiss her forehead softly.

Jayne lay awake on his own bed, staring at the ceiling, trying not the think at all, sleep evading him.

Ana's room was dark and lonely, and so was the infirmary.

Mal clenched the pillow tightly in a fist, grinding his teeth together. He whispered to the darkness.

"I will come back for you."

* * *

There was a knock at the door that just began to wake Ana up, and before she could even fully open her eyes, a woman was coming in, wearing a white uniform, her hair tied into a knot at the back of her head and covered by a flowered bandanna. She walked quietly, thinking that Ana was still asleep, and took the handheld from its place on the bedside table, plugging it into a handheld of her own. She downloaded the information and soundlessly replaced the handheld on the table, and left some clothes on top of Ana's. She placed a paper on top of the stack of clothes and then she was gone.

"Ugh," Ana moaned to herself, extending an arm stiff with sleep to pick up the paper and bring it to her eyes to read.

_Union Care Medical Rehabilitation Center_

_UCMRC_

For the weakened of body and mind

Patient: Kayla McFere

_ID: 0095733H  
Age: 22  
Sex: F  
Papers: Updated_

_Occupation: Part-time engineer Firefly class spaceships  
Education: Base School_

_Nature of Ailment(s): Physical  
Ailment(s): Surgery on left hip, shot wound, multiple whiplash wounds_

_TBT: weakness (general), use of legs and core muscles_

_Status: Crippled_

_Scheduled Stay: Min two weeks_

_  
Please sign if the above information is correct. If it is incorrect, please contact your room manager._

Thank you for your cooperation. We hope your stay is short and comfortable.  
~Management

Ana just stared at it, her mind blank and unwilling to focus. She didn't want to believe

where she was and yet she could see, hear, smell, and feel it all around her. The whiteness, the sterile, awful smell of hospitals, the softness of feet and wheels in the hallway, the smooth blankets she slept under, went all through her senses. There were children here, adults, and old people. All ages come to recover, rehabilitate, whatever. And here was she, once the most dreaded space pirate in her sector, in one of these awful places, left to these people she didn't know and without the one thing in all galaxies of all the universes that she had ever really wanted.

The paper hit the floor and she sobbed.

After she had brought her breathing down to normal, she thought to herself. She couldn't stay here- but she couldn't leave. Simon had promised that they'd return for her, not a maybe in her memory- _we are going to come back for you_. But here was the last place she'd ever want to be- but how could they have known that? But, above her concern for herself was her concern for her crewmates. How would they fare, that surely the trackers were well on their trail? Would Kesara come and attempt to settle the score? Above even these concerns were the concerns she had for her captain.

_Will he be hurt?_ she though to herself wildly. _What if he dies?_ She absolutely could not bear the thought and instantly her mind went to other things, even as her eyes watered again. She crawled as well as she could out of the bed and picked up the paper, noticing a pen on the bedside table. She signed her false name onto the paper and put it on the table, sitting on the bed blankly, wondering what in the world she was supposed to _do_. She looked at her dirty, ragged looking infirmary clothes, the white tank top and the white knickers, that she had been wearing for a couple of weeks. She looked at her old clothes, the tank top and baggy pants- there was a strange yellow tag on them, reading something in Chinese. She eyed the tag until she had figured out that it was a laundry tag and most likely there would be someone along to run her clothes to the laundry before she could change into them- or maybe they would stay in confinement until she was allowed to leave. Whether the people here wanted that or not, Ana decided that she would not don those clothes again until Malcolm Reynolds himself were there to help her put them on.

She picked up the white clothes that had been left her by the room attendant earlier- a white t-shirt that was going to fit her rather snugly, she could tell already. A pair of white, very oversized pants that were of a soft material, a drawstring was around the waist. Apparently, every adult here got the same pants, but the shirts they could specify a certain size. She pulled her old things off, putting them on top of her other clothes and under the yellow laundry tag, and pulled on the pants and shirt- the pants were positively huge. She drew the drawstring as tightly as she could, and then slipped into the shirt, which actually fit better than she had apprehended. Suddenly, there was a rush and shuffle of wheels in the hall, and the door was being rapped on sharply.

"Come in," Ana said softly, and the doorknob bent downward and the door slid open silently, and a woman with flaming red hair that was tied up under a green checkered handkerchief rolled a large trolley full of clothes into the room.

"All of these?" She asked in a voice that was neither sweet nor harsh.

"Yep," Ana replied, still trying to make her voice work as well as it had used to. She had spent a lot of time crying and a lot of time being silent lately, and her voice wasn't quite normal.

"You need someone?" the woman asked her, her brow knit, as she put Ana's clothes on the cart. Ana held in what would have been a cynical laugh. _If only you knew,_ she thought, and smiled a little.

"Someone, yeah. Maybe the, uh…" She eyed the signed paper. "The room manager?"

"Psht, darlin' you don't wanna ever have to meet _that_ woman," The red haired woman said, her nose wrinkled. "No, I'll just get Cal for you," She rolled her cart out into the hallway.

"I'm Hilda, by the way. I do the laundry in this place. And you are?" Hilda inclined her head in an old-world sort of manner, which made Ana smile a little.

"I'm…" She caught herself. "I'm Kayla," Hilda just rolled off down the hall. Ana sighed.

"Lordy gracious, child, you look like a twig with a cold!" Another trolley was rolling down the hall and into her room, and now this was a short black woman, her curly hair flying all around her head, her red handkerchief polka-dotted. Her cart was adorned with something that Ana nearly fainted at the sight of- food. _Real food._ Her mouth watered- mashed potatoes, roast beef with gravy, something that looked a lot like green beans, corn, a lump of fried cornbread. A glass of water, tall and cold and fresh, sat beside the plate of food, and a tiny bowl of a few blueberries sat with a little whipped cream twirled on top.

"And a starvin' one too! You let ole Cal feed you up and get you bathed nice 'n clean, then you can nap and we'll go on down to the walkin' gym and you can get yourself to walking proper," As she said these things, Cal was putting up a tray and softly pushing Ana back into the pillows, and setting the plate of food, glass of water, bowl of blueberries, and cutlery onto the tray with a broad smile that showed every one of her perfect pearly whites. She only smiled larger when Ana devoured her lunch in extremely short order.

"Goodness gracious baby James, you must be starved, eating thataway! Here," She took the dishes and the tray and put them back on her trolley, which she promptly rolled out into the hall and pressed a button on its side which lit up a red light on the ceiling. She bustled back into the room with an air of satisfaction.

"Now, you young thing, a bath is in order," Ana scratched her head as Cal opened a door on the opposite wall from that of the hallway, revealing a sizable bathroom.

"Do you like jasmine or sweet pea better?" Cal asked, holding up two bottles of what must've been bath bubbles or a body wash.

"Uh, jasmine, if y' please," Ana said, and her voice was beginning to sound normal again.

"Fine choice, m'dear," Cal nodded and turned on the bath water, pouring two spoonfuls of the translucent purple liquid into the stream of water that came from the faucet.

"Now, doll, your papers state that you're a cripple and you'll need some help gettin' around, so I gotta help you take a bath. Don't you fret yerself about it, sweetie, I'm only doing this until you can walk proper again," Cal came over with a couple of towels- huge, white, fluffy ones.

"I'm sure it'll be alright," said Ana, who was too excited by the prospect of a bath and too tired from everything that had been happening lately to let any body image problems she had ever had bother her now. She began to peel off her clothes, and left them on the bed, letting Cal put an arm around her shoulders and help her to the bathroom. Ana stepped gingerly into the water, which was wonderful and fragrant and hot. She gently lowered herself into a sitting position, and allowed Cal to begin to mop at her back with a washrag.

"Dearie me, you poor creature, whatever made these scars on your back? They're terrible fresh-lookin' too," Cal fretted, being extremely gentle in her washing.

"I had a bad run-in with a real bad man who's got himself into th' Black Market," Ana said softly, telling as little as she could.

"Oh, my my my, poor thing. What's you're name, darlin'?" Cal asked.

"Kayla," Ana said, remembering her false identity.

"Pretty name. Pretty name for a pretty young'n. Here, let me get those arms," The washcloth went smoothly and softly over the scars on Ana's arms, and then Cal took care of her legs and stomach.

"There, now you're smellin' quite like a garden, doll. Hup!" An arm went around Ana's shoulders and she was hauled delicately out of the tub and onto a mat, where Cal supported her as she dried herself off and donned a soft robe.

"You see," Cal explained. "We used to have to rub lotion all over the poor dears that come here, but we got some insider info and got ourselves some real good wash that eliminates that step, so to speak. Easier on us Healers," She cheerily led Ana back to the bed, where she took a brush to her hair and then rubbed a little peppermint-smelling cream onto her face.

"Now, you just nap there, and ole Calpurnia will just nap in this here little chair, and when you wake up we'll dress you and take you down to the gym, hm? That sound like a plan?"

"Sounds terrible nice to me," Ana said, and sleepily. She snuggled herself under the soft covers and pulled her robe around her, drifting peacefully into sleep that was so tired it was devoid of dreams.

* * *

"Mal, look at this," Wash pointed to their communication screen, which was blipping.

"What?" Mal asked, not harshly but sadly, without animation to his manner at all. He had been that way for the past two weeks while they had eluded their trackers. Their rations were running low and so was their morale.

"They want to talk,"

"Let 'em talk," Mal growled. Wash turned the screen on. A rather ugly bald man was looking at them, a tattoo scrawled across his eyes.

"Malcolm Reynolds, I presume," he said.

"This is him, what're you followin' my ship for?"

"I am the bounty hunter Gems Aknew, and I am offering you an ultimatum. Land on Shadow, which is the nearest planet, at a precise location which we'll feed to your ship in a moment, and fight us, or be prepared to die," Mal rose an eyebrow starkly.

"Who is 'us' and who gave you the authority to order me 'n my crew around?"

"It is not an order, it is an ultimatum. Land at this location and fight us, or die. We have a hundred guided missiles aimed to tear your puny little ship apart, so think about it," The screen went black.

"They're feeding us the location, Cap'n," Wash said. "What should we do?"

"We're goin' down there to kick their asses. Nobody threatens me or my crew that way," he grabbed the microphone.

"Simon, report to the cockpit immediately," he said short-temperedly. In moments, Simon was there.

"Yes, sir?" he asked.

"Simon, do y' think I can take River down there with us? We could use her… skills,"

"I don't… well… I don't know. I don't think she'd have any problems because they're not Reavers, but I don't know if she'd take to a fighting situation quickly enough not to get hurt. Then again, if she were directly threatened, she'd probably fight,"

"And all this meaning?" Mal asked impatiently.

"Well, go ahead and take her, but I'll go too. I can actually shoot now, and if she has any problems I'm the only one who knows how to stop her," Simon said.

"Good. That's all, sir," Mal said, and turned to glare at the starry sky. Simon shuffled out, casting a worried look at Wash, whose look in return was the same.


	13. Walking Visions

Part Thirteen: Walking Visions

"Cal? Cal!" Ana shook her sleeping Healer, who woke with a start.

"Hm? Oh! Sorry, sweetie, I was havin' a rather nice dream again," she said, and pulled herself up out of the chair and helped Ana over to the door to the hallway. Ana crawled into her wheelchair, which she had to use until she could firmly support herself, even after nearly two weeks of swimming, physical training, and steady walking lessons. Cal whistled pleasantly as she wheeled her charge down the hall and into an elevator, which took them down to ground level, and wheeled her out into the fresh sunshine.

"What a pretty day, goodness me," she said, smiling widely. Ana couldn't find it in her heart to smile- she had hoped with all her heart that after two weeks they'd come back for her. But they hadn't yet. Cal rolled her down many a covered walkway, towards a grey building with large blue double-doors.

"Here's the gym, then, and let's see, you'll need… the third level, walking again today. Alrighty, off we go!" And she cheerfully pushed Ana inside and into another elevator, up to Level 3.

Melody, Ana's walking instructor, smiled at her somberly when she saw Cal wheeling her into the gym room, which was bizarrely empty that morning.

"Good day," Melody said with a nod, walking over to help Cal pull Ana out of her wheelchair.

"Are you ready to go ten feet?" Melody asked as she supported Ana on her way to the wall, where a steel rod was ready to use in case she needed support while walking.

"I… I think so," Ana said, taking hold of the rod as Cal stepped back and Melody paced ten feet down the wall and stood there, waiting patiently. Ana cautiously let go of the rod and began to plod, slowly and awkwardly, down towards her instructor. She held out an arm when she was close, so close, only one more step…

"You made it!" Melody said happily, taking Ana's hand and supporting her again. Ana smiled, a small, almost forced smile. Cal clapped and laughed behind them.

"Wanna go for fifteen?" Melody asked, giving Ana a look. She thought for a moment.

"Sure," she decided, and Melody paced herself fifteen feet down the wall from where Ana stood now grasping the rod again. She began to plod, again slowly and awkwardly, but not touching the rod. Cal was happily singing in her deep, soulful voice behind her, cheering her on. But, suddenly, the singing was loud, altogether too loud, and Ana stopped and held still for a moment, her forehead wrinkled, and the sounds that she heard began distorting themselves strangely in her ears, and suddenly she went blind and stopped breathing for only a moment. A moment… not even a moment… but it felt like forever… Mal. There was Mal suddenly before her, fighting a tall, ugly bald man with a tattoo on his face. He was winning, it seemed, and she could see Wash and Zoë around her as well, fighting more men. She watched, baffled, but not sadly because it seemed like Mal had the upper hand. But, suddenly and quicker than lightning, a tiny gun was coming out of its holster at the bald man's hip, and was poking Mal's gut. Her eyes went wide when she realized that his finger was squeezing the trigger.

"NO! MAL!" she screamed, but her voice shattered and fell dead about her, resounding in the silence of the vision, and she screamed as she saw the shot echo through her mind and into Mal's body, and she heard him scream.

Then, she passed out.

***

"Kayla? Are you awake? Kayla, can you hear me?" Cal was over her, dabbing a mercifully cold cloth on her forehead, she was burning all over, her head ached.

"I… I can hear you…" she murmured, blinking to try and force her vision to adjust itself.

"You screamed and fell over, we thought you were having a fit," Melody's voice said.

"No… Mal… I need to help him…" she mumbled to herself.

"Now, child, calm yourself down, nothin's wrong," Cal said, looking with worrying question at Melody, who only shrugged.

"Mal… he's been shot… he could die… Mal… we have to save him…" Her eyes rolled back into her head and she flopped over, out cold again. Cal pulled the syringe out of her arm, shaking her head sadly.

"I hate it when I gotta use that thing," she said, pushing some of Ana's hair out of her face.

"You need to calm her down and feed her as soon as she wakes up. Then send her to the sauna. She must relax," Melody said.

"Alright," Cal said, looking sadly at her charge. "Please, Melody, help me get her into her wheelchair,"

***

Mal was barely conscious when he finally saw Kesara's bulk hanging over him like a stench, blocking out the sun. It was jiggling softly as the man chuckled.

"Captain Reynolds, I thought you might have learned," he said. "You got lucky the last time, but that won't be happening again," Mal gripped his bleeding side and his gun, which was hidden under his body and had been since he fell.

"You'd better watch yer back, Kesara," was all he could growl. The bulk chuckled maliciously again.

"You are quite a mouthful, you cheeky little—" before he could finish, all of his men let out cries and fell dead, writhing like animals on the ground. River stood a few feet behind Mal.

"You did this to us," she said, glaring at him, her haunting eyes piercing him. Kesara just shook in his fear, staring wide-eyed at the girl who stood weaponless before him but was the only one left of the Serenity crew conscious enough to have killed his men. _She's a psychic, she's a psychic!_

"You," she said again, and suddenly Kesara felt as if he were choking, and he grasped his throat, sucking in for breath and drawing none. River glared at him.

"No, 'lil one," Mal said, pushing himself painfully onto one arm, pulling out his gun. "I wanna do the honors on this'n,"

Kesara staggered back, gasping. He looked with blind panic at the barrel of Mal's gun.

"This isn't for me. It isn't for my crew, as much as I love 'em. This," he cocked his gun. "Is for Ana," And without a nanosecond for anyone to say or do anything, the shot sounded and Kesara fell back, shot squarely between the eyes, deader than a doornail. Mal smiled to himself as his gun fell to the ground, and then his arm followed suit and collapsed as he blacked out.

***

Ana sat in the sauna, in the heated pool which bubbled with soft smells and jets of hot water onto her sore back. The steam whirled around her head and shoulders, the perspiration dripping off her aquiline nose. She looked at the seething mass of foamy bubbles that she sat in, not able to concentrate on the massaging jets of water, the smell, even her own discomfort at having to breathe in such heavy steam. She could only think of what she has seen.

_Maybe you was just worried, and the vision came from that. Maybe it was some dream come to bother you in the day. Maybe this'n was the first vision ever gone wrong._ But she had never seen anything that had ever turned out to be untrue. She stared into the bubbles- angry that she was stuck here, a cripple, unable to do anything for Mal. Unable to do anything for the person that she would have done anything for, for him to live, to be happy, to hold in her in his arms. A tear trickled down her check to mingle with the salts of her sweat.

"Kayla, honey, you been here long enough," said Cal's voice, and she came with the wheelchair in tow and a large, soft white robe. Ana sighed and allowed her Healer to help her out of the tub and pull the robe around her gently. She sank into her wheelchair and Cal rolled her out of the sauna.

"Look, sweetie, I'm right sorry about using the shot on you, but you was talkin' crazy. I had to do somethin'," Cal said as they stopped outside Ana's room and she opened the door.

"It's alright, Cal, don't worry," Ana assured her meekly, pushing herself onto her cot.

"Sleep now, alright?" Cal said, pulling the soft white blanket up to her shoulders. "I gotta go eat somethin' myself and take care of some things. I'll be back in a while," She left quietly, leaving Ana alone in the dark for the first time. She curled up, hugging her knees, sad and lonely. And, for the first time in her life, she prayed. She didn't have a God, so she didn't know who or what she was praying to, but she prayed.

***

Three weeks. Ana had almost given up hope, and was nearly to resigning herself to her loneliness, thinking that her Captain was dead by now. She could walk. She could run. She could jog, squat, flip, kick, she could even dance. She could skate, she could swim, she could ice skate, she could do all manner of gymnastics, because once she had started healing, she had done it quickly, and needed exercise to keep her healthy, busy, and strong. They did keep her worn out, and if it hadn't been for her dreams she would have had the best sleep that she'd had in a long, long time.

It was late, late that night, and she couldn't sleep at all. So, she had asked Cal if she could go swimming. Cal had sleepily granted her permission and then nodded back off into dreamland. Ana wore her black one-piece that was uniform for all the women and girls here. She remembered her small friends; Dani, the young autistic girl with blue eyes and too much energy, Sara, the girl with the curly red hair who was going through extensive physical therapy after her heart replacement surgery. She remembered Elle the deaf girl, Ron the little boy with cancer who was undergoing chemotherapy, Dallas the boy who was being weaned off the cocaine addiction that he was born with. Then there were the older ones. Selene was a recovering alcoholic, Destiny was doing physical therapy for her bone marrow replacement surgery. Chelsea was born with a mental disability that no one had quite figured out, and Matthew couldn't think past the level of a five year old. Chin was an older man who was recovering from a surgery done on his spine and was also having to relearn walking. William, who was just called Pop by most of the younger people here, was the oldest man in the place, and he was here just for that reason- he was old and needed care. He was kind of like a father for Ana, and that was sad- because he was dying.

She thought of all these people as she did her laps; three doing the freestyle stroke, three doing the breast stroke, three doing the sidestroke. When she was finished, she floated on her back to the middle of the pool, closing her eyes and trying to clear her mind like the old Chinese monks did when they meditated. She stayed that way for a while, her mind blank, floating atop the water. She drifted towards the shallow end of the pool and decided to get out. She climbed out on the ladder and pulled a large, white towel off the tiled floor to dry herself and then pulled on her white robe. She stood, facing the wall, which was a rusty brown hue- the only room in this entire network of buildings that wasn't white. She felt her eyes brimming with tears. She sniffed loudly, and began to cry, putting a palm over her mouth, staring at the floor, wishing with all her heart for a miracle.

"Funny, I kinda hoped that I'd be greeted with a smile, not tears," said a voice behind her. She froze, not wanting to believe in its familiarity, lest she be disappointed. After a short moment, she turned, slowly, and there, behind her, smiling wryly and gripping his bandaged side a little, was Malcolm Reynolds. She couldn't move for a moment.

"Mal?" she asked finally, in disbelief, shaken violently from her depression and her loneliness. Here was the man she loved, and here also was a man she had thought was dead.

"No other," he said, smiling. She stood fish-mouthed for a moment, and then, suddenly and like lightning, she ran to him, around the corners of the pool, barefoot on the cold concrete, and straight into his arms, burying her face in his bare chest, wrapping her arms around his neck and sobbing in her joy.

"Now, my pretty thing, don't cry! I b'lieve Simon toldja we'd come back for you," he said, holding her as close to him as possible nonetheless. He pressed his face gently into the top of her head, running one hand through her thick, dark hair, which had gotten longer over the months spent on Serenity and the weeks here. They held each other close, Ana trying to control her weeping and her breathing. After a moment, she had got herself calmed down, and pulled her hand up along his back and onto his neck, looking up at him with those huge grey eyes, watering and wide, her lips curved into a smile of pure unbound joy. He looked back at her, his familiar smirk-like smile on his face, looking right back into her eyes for a moment of indecisive longing. There was a clatter in the hall, and suddenly the door opened and Calpurnia came running in, followed by Zoë and Simon. They looked on the pair, Cal's face not understanding, Zoë and Simon all affection and soft smiles.

"What the devil is—" before Cal could finish, indeed only seconds after they had entered, Mal took Ana's face in his hands and kissed her, taking in her sweet smell, the softness of the skin on her face, treasuring her taste and the sensation of her hands softly trailing over his neck and his shoulder blades. Cal's face went from alarm to understanding, and she smiled, clasping her hands together, murmuring, "Oh, my…"

Ana pulled away from Mal in the middle of the kiss, her face suddenly alarmed and full of questions.

"Mal, I thought you was dead! How… what happened?" but Mal placed a finger gently on her lips, smiling at her.

"I got a whole story to tell you later, don't worry," he said, stroking her face affectionately. Suddenly his grimaced and held his side.

"Oh, Mal, you need rest," she said, putting an arm around him and turning them towards her Healer and crewmates.

"Cal, can we please take 'im back to my room? He's gotta eat and have this wound taken care of," she said, helping him towards them.

"How do you know about that wound?" Zoë asked, confused.

"I had a vision. I saw him get shot by that bald man," Ana replied, looking worried.

"I'm just peachy, don't you bother these here folk—" Cal cut Mal off. "Sure, let's get him back to your room. I'll tell the manager that we have an extra for the night," she said as they began to go down the hall back towards Ana's room.


	14. Back in the Saddle

Part Fourteen: Back in the Saddle

Ana awoke from her doze when Mal limped back into the room from the bathroom, wrapped in a robe. She blinked and pushed herself up, sitting up properly in the chair, yawning as Mal climbed into the bed, fresh bandages on his side and smelling of something wonderfully mannish. She was in her white t-shirt and a pair of white shorts that had been issued to her- the past two weeks had been much warmer than her first one here, because of the planet's strictly regulated climate changes each season. She noticed that she had gotten a little tan, spending a lot of time outside with her younger friends and admirers. Cal came out of the bathroom, holding a towel.

"I'll put this in the laundry and get you some clothes, Mr. Reynolds. But I hope you don't mind me not doin' it until mornin'," she said, sleepily smiling. Mal nodded.

"Alright, well, I'll leave you two be, then, and come with breakfast and some clean clothes for you both tomorrow," she said, and left, giving Ana a slightly mischievous look. The room darkened a little from the lack of the hallway light. Mal settled into the cot, and looked at Ana, who sat in the chair rubbing her eyes, pulling her feet up and hugging her knees.

"Lookit you," he said suddenly and quietly. Ana's brow wrinkled.

"What about me?" she asked.

"You've got all muscular on me," he said, grinning cheekily. Ana turned pink. "Well… they…they have me doin' a lot of work," she stammered, smiling shyly. "I mean I had to swim and skate and do gymnastics and all… so I… sorta…" she hid her face and smiled a mile wide as Mal just gazed at her, a little awe and a lot of passion in his smiling face.

"Why don't you come hither, you little minx, and keep me all warm and cozy tonight?" he asked, sliding a little towards the other side of the cot to make a little room for her, holding out his hand.

"Why, you got a robe," she said playfully, in false reprimand.

"Why, I do not!" he retorted, pulling the robe off and out from under the covers and sending it to the floor. The white bandages shone against his own slight tan, his biceps and abs looked a little better than she was used to, and she wondered if he had worked on it especially or if it had just happened. She smirked a little at him and took his hand, and he pulled her onto the cot with him, making her slide under the covers and up next to him. She settled her head in the crook of his neck, her hands on his chest and shoulder. He curled his arm about her waist, stroking her side gently, feeling her firm, soft skin and the new muscles underneath. They lay still for a moment, but suddenly, Mal spoke.

"This ain't real fair, now I come to thinkin' on it," he said speculatively.

"What in the nine hells do you want now?" Ana asked in false exasperation, smiling.

"Well, I was just thinkin' that if I was naked here, maybe it ain't fair that you're not," he said, grinning broadly and pulling at her until she was mostly on top of him.

"Well, I can understand what you mean, _Cap'n_, but what do you suggest we do about it?" she asked with a chuckle. Mal smiled.

"Hm, I was thinkin' on that too…" his voice trailed off and he kissed her, passionate and painstaking, running his hands all over her body until he had her shirt tugged off and her shorts shortly afterward. Giving her a little push, he turned them over, kissing her neck.

It began to rain softly outside.

* * *

"Well, God, Mal, I thought it'd take forever for you to wake up," said Wash with a laugh. Mal blinked blearily, but before anything else had sunk in, he noticed that Ana wasn't curled up with him anymore. Light poured in from the window. Zoë was there also.

"Where's Ana?" he ask, pushing himself up into a sitting position as he rubbed his eyes.

"I'm right here, Mal," He turned to see her behind him, holding his clothes in her small hands, the sweetest smile on her face- and in her eyes.

"Why, are them for me?" Mal asked, looking at his clothes, in false surprise.

"'Course they are, you big nut," she laughed, the pure and wild laugh, elegant and reckless. She tossed them at him.

"Goody!" he said, clapping. "Now, if you folks don't mind, I gotta change," he said. Wash and Zoë nodded and filed out the door, waiting in the hall, where Ana spied Calpurnia, with another bundle of clothes in her hands. As they walked out, she came in.

"I believe these here clothin' articles are yours, sweetie," she said handing Ana her old clothes, the tank top and pants and boots that she hadn't worn in so long. She smiled.

"Thank you, Cal, but…"

"You're done, sweetheart. You're on your way into bigger things now," Cal looked at her, her eyes brimming with tears. Ana hugged her healer. There was a sniff from the hall outside.

"Alright, well, don't take too long in here, love birds," Cal said, and winked at Ana as she joined the crew of Serenity in the hall, shutting the door.

"Why, I wonder if you'll even fit into them anymore, you bein' all muscular and such now," Mal said, standing up and pulling on his delectably tight pants and pulling his belt around his waist. Ana looked at the clothes and turned to him.

"Mal, I don't even know how these _feel_ anymore," she said, shaking her head.

"Come on, now, they can't be _that_ old 'o memories," He pulled on his shirt, buttoning it. Ana laid them out on the bed and pulled off her shorts, turning away from Mal and looking at the door to the hall. She folded them and put them neatly on the bedside table, doing the same with her shirt as she pulled it off. Mal looked at her skin in the soft daylight, supple and almost glowing. He pushed himself over the cot and hugged her from behind, chuckling a little to himself as she gasped from the sudden contact without warning. She smiled and sighed.

"I missed you," she said, resting her head against his chest.

"I missed you, too," he replied, kissing the top of her head and pulling her clothes off the bed behind them and holding her pants for her to step into, fastening them around her small hips with delicacy. He ran his hands all over her stomach, and just held her, half-clothed, to him, just wanting to be assured that he wasn't dreaming, that he really had what he needed as much as he needed his own life and his ship and his crew. Then, he pulled her shirt over her head and let her slide her arms through the armholes, tugging it over her, letting his hands touch the skin before the fabric did. She stepped back from him and looked down at herself.

"Them pants was always big," she murmured, and he laughed.

"But the shirt fits you right nice," he said, grinning devilishly. She pulled one of her boots on and tied it.

"In woman-speak, that means it's a sight too tight," she retorted, smiling nonetheless as she pulled on the other boot.

"At least it looks good," Mal said matter-of-factly.

"Why, thank you, Cap'n," Ana said, smiling and glancing back at him teasingly as she went for the door. Her hand was on the knob before she felt his hands on her waist.

"Not before this, you don't," he said, and before she could reply he kissed her, pressing her up against the door softly. After a moment, though, they began to feel simply overjoyed and calm, and Ana ran her hand through her captain's hair, and Mal touched her check in return, and finally broke his kiss.

"_Now_ we can leave," he said, smiling, and opened the door, leading her out by the hand. The entire crew of Serenity faced them with knowing smirks on their faces.

"What?" Mal asked, feigning innocence. They all laughed aloud.

* * *

"Kaylee!" Ana ran and hugged the engineer after the doorway to Serenity _thunked_ open on the grass. Mal smiled and walking inside, closing the door.

"Ana! Hey, my lord, it's nice to see you again!" Kaylee smiled.

"Oh I missed all you guys… I didn't get to hug anyone else but Mal and now you, so everyone step up an' get a turn!" Ana delightedly hugged Wash, then Zoë, and Jayne. River came down the steps.

"You're back!" she said, softly but happily, letting Ana hug her and smiling.

"Oh, yes, kid, I am back, back to screw things up again," she said, laughing. River just smiled. Ana turned away from her, but then turned back.

"Hey, kid, where's your big brother?" she asked. River smiled and pointed to the stairs. "He's in the infirmary,"

"Thanks," Ana dashed up the stairs and down the hall, straight into the infirmary.

"SIMON!" she yelled, and he turned from some needles and medicine samples and smiled. Before he could reply, she was hugging him tightly.

"Hey there, little one," he said, hugging her back. "How are you feeling?"

"Never better," Ana said, beaming. "Maybe it's good you left me at the rehab, but please, please, PLEASE never do it again!" she exclaimed, laughing.

"Alright, I promise, I won't," Simon said, smiling at her. Mal came in.

"Simon, Ana, now that we're done with the mushy reunion, please note that we're goin' to Haven again, and Ana, if possible, do try 'n avoid any _more_ reunions?" Mal smirked at her, remembering Luke.

"I'll do my best, Cap'n," she said with a smile.

"Mal, for God's sake,"

"Ain't appropriate, is it?"

"I'm sure nobody will mind you callin' me by m' right name, bao be,"

"Fine, Mal," She went over to him, and Simon watched with a smile as she hugged him- again. Then she looked around outside and looked at the infirmary.

"It's so good to be home,"


End file.
